


It's not the dead you should be afraid of

by Narjen



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Attempted Murder, Betrayal, Blood, Bokuto Koutarou & Kuroo Tetsurou Broship, Cruelty, Death, Denial of Feelings, Distrust, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Illnesses, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Moral Dilemmas, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Alternating, Rape/Non-con Elements, Sexual Content, Torture, Violence, Zombies, compassion - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-10
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:33:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 13
Words: 84,497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23584669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Narjen/pseuds/Narjen
Summary: "Matsun got his legs to move, because these ‘things’ had spotted him. He ran past the fallen and crying people on the floor, ignoring the grieving mother crying while holding her child, only to be attacked and bitten in the neck a few seconds later. Issei corrected himself: these things were definitely zombies, and from now on, he would refer to them as such. Man-eating zombies. He shouldn’t have gotten out of bed today. He regretted it already."
Relationships: Akaashi Keiji/Bokuto Koutarou, Bokuto Koutarou & Kuroo Tetsurou, Hanamaki Takahiro/Matsukawa Issei, Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru, Kageyama Tobio & Oikawa Tooru, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added, Shimizu Kiyoko/Yachi Hitoka
Comments: 46
Kudos: 110





	1. The Beginning

At first, it was simply rumours spreading around on the internet. After that people developed all kinds of conspiracy theories. The majority was convinced; however, that it was all just unreasonable scare tactics; fanatics trying to shake society by freaking people out because they did what they usually did: claiming that the end was near, and people were going to be punished for being too liberal or too promiscuous. Then radical and religious groups started taking it a step further and utilised the growing fear within society to spout their nonsense into the world. The rift caused within society got bigger and bigger with every day that passed and every new incident reported.

Matsukawa didn’t want to take the reports seriously at first, thinking that they were overreacting – or at least hoping they were overreacting. He saw the media coverage, but it consisted mostly of videos found on YouTube or similar platforms, which only proved that they were overreacting. Could have been fake for all he knew. He did not want to think about the world ending, so he ignored it mostly. He ignored most things anyway.

Matsukawa Issei was 21 years old and still trying to find his way in life. Before all that shit went down, he made a living off committing credit card fraud. People were quite reckless with their data and easily fell victim to such deception.

Since the incidents exploded exponentially, the government decided that severely affected cities and areas were to be temporary locked down. The concerns got louder and louder, and people were asking questions, but those questions weren’t answered since the government, in their naivety and apathy, kept thinking that their white lies would keep people from rioting. Well, it didn’t work for the most part because the inability of the government to act or provide an explanation or cause as to why people suddenly acted like the Causeway Cannibal, made everyone nervous. People were sent to overcroweded hospitals, and staff quarantined potential individuals who might have contracted the disease. They called the disease the ‘acute cerebrum deterioration syndrome’, but they couldn’t pinpoint the cause. Blood screens tested negative to everything currently known, and the toxicology screens turned out negative too. Experts were at a loss, but no one could have foreseen what was about to happen.

The first time Issei had a face to face encounter with one of those groaning and hissing ‘things’ was at the grocery store. He wanted to get some necessities because he was sure that it was the best thing to do right now, even though he had been having a bad feeling all morning. It proved his bad feeling was right. His town was supposed to go into lockdown today, controlled by the police and the military. Some voices speculated the military had sent an evacuation team, but there was no military, and the police was nowhere in sight either. Nobody knew what was going on, and nobody knew how far the disease had spread through the cities.

Matsukawa was in the medical aid aisle, standing in front the shelves. He had got toothpaste and instant food, among other things. The store was down the dregs, so he took what he found. There were barely any bandages and patches left, and he sighed, feeling annoyed. He’s got a nasty cut on the underside of his foot because he stepped into a glass shard. The store was crowded, and here and there someone bumped into him with their cart, pushing their way through without caring if they had hurt someone or not. Issei scanned the aisle again, throwing some disinfectant into his cage. It had to suffice. Suddenly, he heard loud screams and a crash. People were running past the aisles, pushing each other to the ground and stepping onto those who were unlucky enough to have fallen during the panic. Matsun stood there stupefied, not knowing whether he should follow them and run or if it was best for him to let the panic pass him by for now. His heart rate increased, and he could hear how the muscle pumped blood through his system. The pounding in his heart felt deafening, and his breathing quickened; a cold shudder of dread running down his spine. Well, in hindsight, he should have run because if he had done so, he wouldn’t have found himself in the situation his was in right now.

Matsukawa found himself caged in between three carts; a desperate last-minute attempt to keep that ‘zombie-like’ thing at bay. It was reaching for him, groaning and showing its teeth. Its eyes were hollow, and one of its arms was broken, probably from a fall. Its clothes were torn and ragged and covered in blood. The dark-haired man was not sure if it was someone else’s blood or its own. He hoped the latter was the case. Issei looked at it completely mortified, but he had seen enough horror movies to know that he had to destroy its brain. He watched the jaw open and close; the gurgling sounds adding to the chilling and surreal encounter. Matsukawa knew what he had to do, but knowing and executing were two different things, so he hesitated, trying to think of a way around it. What if these things weren’t zombies, but people out of control; humans still conscious of their action, but unable to stop themselves. The thought was horrifying, and he pushed it away into the back of his mind as fast as it entered his brain. Issei scanned his surroundings; he could still hear people screaming, crying and yelling. The thing in front of him was still trying to get a hold of him, though the carts prevented it from doing so. The small distance gave Matsun time to look properly at it. The woman who had apparently fallen victim to the disease was relatively small; tiny wrists and thin fingers clasping onto the handlebar of the cart, though she could not push the cart away. Considering its small stature, Issei wasn’t surprised at all, although she seemed to get stronger, the more agitated she became. Grocery carts and the items, they stored, were now scattered on the floor, having been abandoned and thrown over in the panic.

The floor, itself, was dirty, and the panicking crowed had even pushed over entire shelves that were now blocking the way. At least it gave him an excellent view of what was happening around him. The groaning got louder, and Issei knew it was only a matter of time, until more of these things flooded the small store. So, Matsun pushed one cart, that was holding off that creepy freak, away with a lot of force, causing the thing to tumble clumsily over its feet and hit the floor with a loud thud. Issei hissed. He had caused too much noise. First the jingling and clattering of the cart, and then the impact that thing made on the ground. Matsun manoeuvred through the store, successfully avoiding drawing further attention to himself. The entrance was right in front of him, and he pressed his shopping basket tightly towards his chest. There was no way, he would let go of his stuff. The thought of still having to pay crossed his mind for a moment, but he dismissed it because it was ridiculous.

He reached the exit, and the automatic door opened, revealing the chaos outside. The car park looked like a battlefield with people crying and screaming, lying there injured or dead; Some completely decapitated. Instead of helping each other, people fought their way through the chaos, hoping to get a car to leave the scene. Whether it was their own car or a stolen one didn’t matter, apparently. The vehicles weren’t even completely full, which reminded Matsun too much of the ridiculous and totally unnecessary death of Jack in the movie ‘Titanic’.

Those who fled with a car recklessly ran over those trying to get into the car. People kicked each other, beat other down or attacked each other with a knife, bat or similar weapons. Everyone was only thinking of themselves and those close to them, sacrificing those who were in the way. The picture that Issei had witnessed was something he never wanted to ever experience again. It was cruel and nauseating. If people reacted like this at this given moment, then how would they act when the situation worsened?

More of these groaning, growling and man-attacking things flood the area; the noises they made disgusting and disturbing. No horror movie could have ever lived up to that.

The panic was clear and undeniable, even for the ignorant ones. Matsun got his legs to move, because these ‘things’ had spotted him. He ran past the fallen and crying people on the floor, ignoring the grieving mother crying while holding her child, only to be attacked and bitten in the neck a few seconds later. Issei corrected himself: these things were definitely zombies, and from now on, he would refer to them as such. Man-eating zombies. He shouldn’t have got out of bed today. He regretted it already.

Matsukawa had a hard time avoiding the zombies, but he managed his way through them, successfully getting to his apartment unharmed and without a scratch. He didn’t know how he did it, but he just did. He moved through his apartment, gathering everything that could be of use or was convenient. He pulled the shelves and cupboards open and scattered the content onto the floor. Then, he stuffed everything into his backpack: fresh clothes, toothpaste, toothbrushes (because hygiene is important, even in times like these), candy bars, packs of instant ramen, three bottles of water, bandages, and other things. Issei strapped the backpack on, taking a deep breath. He rummaged through another cupboard and smiled when he found what he had been looking for: Two large knives and a Swiss pen knife. He put them where he could easily reach them. Before he left his apartment though, he switched the TV on, curious to know what was happening around the world. The screen lit up, but instead of showing the news, almost every news channel was down. But it was nothing new. The news had barely been getting any information from the government, which was probably why nobody knew that there were fucking zombies running around in the street, and it all started a fortnight ago He surfed through the channels, impatiently pressing on the buttons of the remote control. He stopped when he finally found a news channel that was still reporting live. A helicopter showed pictures of gruesome scenes: Men, women and children running for their lives because the quantity of the zombies had doubled within minutes. There was chaos everywhere, and a big traffic jam, showing how desperately people tried to get out of the city. Where was the military that was supposed to evacuate them?

Issei’s eyes were glued to the flickering of the screen. A news reporter was reporting live at the scene, talking into the microphone, but Matsun heard nothing but the screams and cries, cars crashing and glass scattering. The most horrifying thing; however, were the people jumping off houses and out of the window, trying to get away from the bloodthirsty zombies, only to become one themselves. Matsun sat down on the couch and removed his left shoe and sock. Then, he sprayed disinfectant onto the cut. It burned a little, and the cut itself wasn’t that big. He took the bandage and wrapped it around his foot; not too tightly, but not too loose either.

 _“Chaos has taken over the city, and the military is nowhere to be seen. Ho--...Ahhhhh!”_ the reporter screamed, suddenly being attacked by a zombie. He couldn’t even finish his sentence.

The studio was desperately crying out the reporter’s name, but the connection broke off, and soon after a bunch of zombies stormed the studio.

“Fuck me...” mumbled Matsun. He was beyond shocked. The pure mass of the people that had already turned was horrifying. Some zombies were extremely swift on their decaying legs.

He stood up from the couch, mentally preparing himself to leave his apartment; head shooting up when screams and cries could be heard from behind the closed door. The doorknob rattled, and he held his breath; his expression never changing.

The rattling stopped, and Issei stretched his limbs, moving to the window and looking down at the street below. Cars were honking aggressively, and people were being attacked by newborn zombies. Matsun walked to his front door, carefully pushing down the door handle; dread filling his stomach. He peeked outside and made a run for it, which proved to have been quite dangerous because one of his neighbours, Mr Arida, a middle-aged man who had been working as a sales clerk, had turned into a zombie and just tried to bite his leg off. Issei had let out a screechy scream, though he’d never admit that such a sound ever made it past his lips. He was going to deny it forever. Matsukawa speeded up, knowing full well that he had to leave the city and maybe find a group he could join eventually because being on your own all the time was hela boring.

He was on the street now, but he didn’t have a vehicle, even a bike would do, but he only had his feet. Matsun runs down the road, passing by a group of people who were holding signs up in the air. _‘This is the punishment for our sin!_ , _“God’s wrath is coming upon us!”_ , _“The Endgame has begun!!”._

“Why are you running?” A woman, about his age addressed him, and he halted in his steps. Normally he would have ignored her, but he was curious because the group wasn’t panicking at all. They even seemed happy about the whole situation. The wicked and satisfied smiles on their faces creeped him out. Self-delusion at its peak.

“Why shouldn’t I?” Issei asked.

“There is no escaping this. Accept fate. You will all die, but we faithful to Christ and God.” She said, her blonde hair getting blown into her face by the wind.

“Whatever. I’ve got that thing called self-preservation. You should try it.” Matsun laughed and turned around.

“It’s God’s will that we die because sinners such as you have brought this upon us.” The guy with dark hair and thick glasses, who was standing next to the girl, said. He had a golden ring on his finger, so Matsun assumed he had a wife. Maybe to the girl standing right next to him.

“You’re a creepy bunch of delusional devotees, huh.” Issei answers, ignoring their calls. It was better for him to avoid such people.

Matsun looked around, his lungs were burning, and he needed a break. The buildings and skyscrapers around him felt like they were swallowing him whole, and the screaming people and zombies made it hard to focus. He pushed himself through a narrow opening to escape the hoard he had just seen coming right at him. Finding a vehicle, a vehicle or someone who was willing to take a stranger with them seemed to pose a bigger problem than he had initially thought. He was about to give up when he tumbled upon an abandoned bicycle. A zombie was crawling around the bike, and Matsun sighed. It didn’t have any legs, but the arms still posed a danger. He looked around, and the area was mostly quiet. Some zombies walked aimlessly in the streets, but they haven’t noticed him yet, since he was too far away, and the direction of the wind was beneficial to him. He walked towards the zombie at the bike carefully and fully aware of his surroundings. It tried to reach for him, pulling itself into his direction. Matsun stepped around it. He took his knife and immobilised the zombie. He put a jacket that he had found lying around next to the bike onto its head to take away its ability to see him. Its head was shooting up, and it flayed his remaining arm around, trying to claw at the jacket on its head. You could see how the imprint of the jaw was making itself visible through the cotton fabric of the jacket. Matsun wanted to crack its head with his boot, but he stopped right over its head. He needed several attempts until he finally smashed his foot down onto the groaning zombies head, painting the ground and the jacket red. He had thought it would be easier to destroy its brain, but the skull wasn’t as easily crushed as it always seemed in the movies. Maybe the decay hadn’t spread fast enough yet, which still made it hard to crack someone’s skull open. He felt sick to his stomach. Even though it wasn’t human anymore, the feeling of a bone giving in beneath him was still horrible.

Issei swung himself on the bicycle and took off, manoeuvring through the city like he used to when he was younger.

*****

Matsun made it out of town, with no major incident. Although, he had to walk the rest of the way because there was a hole in the bike’s tire. The sun was about to set, but he had found shelter in a small local library. He had been on his feet all day, and he was exhausted. He had found no zombies inside, but he still couldn’t bring himself to close his eyes and fall asleep just like that. The growing darkness, silence and emptiness of the room he was resting in felt creepy. He sighed and rubbed his tired eyes, rummaging through his backpack. He opened the packed sandwiches and devoured them both, but he was still hungry. Matsun sighed again, looking through the room. It was the copy room of the library. It was relatively small and could be locked from the inside without a key. The copier stood at the end of the room, two computers and a scanner sat next to the machine. They had switched the light out because he didn’t want to draw attention from the outside. The dark-haired man pumped his head against the wall behind him, looking at the ceiling. The lamps at the sidewalk were still working, and Matsukawa could clearly see the zombies that wandered outside because of the dim light. Matsun stood up and left the room to go empty the vending machines. Every library had at least one vending machine.

He turned the lock around carefully, shutting his eyes tightly when the action produced a small click. He slowly pushed the door open while pressing his body to the wall; knife clutched tightly to his chest. After a few moments, he peeked outside. The halls were empty, but it didn’t mean that there weren’t any zombies roaming around. The good thing about the library was that there were no automatic doors, so the zombies had it harder to get inside. The danger now where the potential zombies that might walk around inside the building. Matsun had killed most of them off when he entered the building, but he hadn’t checked every room. He moved through the halls like a cat would through the night, producing as little noise as possible. He could hear himself breathing, his eyes darting around everywhere, scanning the area. He was on high alert. The vending machine was in the hall, so he had to go to the main entrance.

The building only had two floors and two pairs of stairs. There was no elevator either. Issei stood on the stairs at the left side, a huge pillar separating him from the stairs to the right side. Since there were only two ways to reach the first floor, it was easy for him to see whether or not someone was coming. The light of the moon and the lamps on the car park illuminated the main floor, giving it a soft blue glow. It looked deceivingly peaceful. Matsun gripped the railing and went downstairs, sliding his hand over the smooth surface of the railing. He pressed his body against the pillar, the same way he did in the copy room, and looked outside. Zombies were roaming around the car park, swaying around and dragging their feet over the ground. He could even hear them groaning because it was so dead quiet. He knew they couldn’t get inside because the door was locked. He had locked it with the key he found on the librarian that had unfortunately turned into one. Despite the door being locked, he didn’t feel safe. He didn’t feel safe at all. There was that nagging feeling of anxiety knocking on the inside of his head. He couldn’t quite drown it out. The groaning and hissing got louder, and suddenly one door rattled. Then there was a quiet ‘fuck’. Issei looked around the pillar, seeing a hooded figure trying to get into the building, zombies closing in on them. He didn’t contemplate too long and ran towards the door, making breath eye contact with the person outside. The look of fear and terror in his green orbs turned into one of relief. Matsun unlocked the door, almost dropping the key in the process and pulled the person inside. He swiftly locked it again, and the zombies started hammering on the door, trying to storm the place. They scratched and clawed at the wood, but the door, a thick wooden door, didn’t budge. Matsun looked at the hooded figure heaving heavily. He was kneeling on the floor and gripping the front of his hoodie tightly.

“Thank you.” He whispered and looked up.

“Your welcome. You don’t run into a zombie hoard every day.” He answered.

“What’s your name? I am Takahiro Hanamaki. My friends call me Maki, and since you saved me, I’ll promote from stranger to friend whose name I still don’t know.” He laughed and looked up. He was still clutching at the front of his shirt, though.

“That’s my first promotion!” Matsun said, covering his mouth like a schoolgirl that had just been confessed to. “I am Issei Matsukawa. You can call me Matsun or by my first name.” answered the raven-haired man. Maki smiled at him.

*****

They were at the copy room again, and now that Matsun wasn’t alone anymore, he didn’t feel as tense.

“You hungry?” he asked Maki, who was sitting a few feet away from him. Maki’s stomach protested loudly.

“My stomach says ‘yes’.”

Matsun handed him a candy bar and the package of sandwiches.

“Thanks.” His said and removed his hood. Now that the hood was off, Matsun could see his face properly. He had short light brown hair, almost a faint hue of pink in them. His eyebrows were slim, and his expression seemed bored, even as he munched on the food.

Matsun leaned backwards, watching Maki. “Where were you when it happened?” he suddenly asked and Maki looked up, swallowing the food.

“At home. Like at home at home. I visited my parents for the weekend because my dad called me and told me to come back. We were supposed to be evacuated, but when I arrived at home nobody was there. I never saw any of the rescue troops arrive. I waited for my parents, but they didn’t come, so I thought it best to leave. What about you?” he asked, expectantly looking at Matsun.

“At the grocery store in the city. Suddenly, everyone around me started freaking out, and then people turned into zombies.” He explained.

“So, does destroying their brain work?” Maki asked while playing with the hem of his shirt.

“Yeah. It does. It’s not nice so.” The raven-haired man said, his gaze glued to the floor. Remembering how the bone structure of the zombie gave in still made him nauseous. He probably needed some time to get used to it.

“It’s a good thing we are in a library.” Maki said, and Matsun threw him a confused look.

“Why?”

“To get some maps. Useful books and so on. I don’t think Google Maps is going to be of much use, since my phone is dead, and we won’t have electricity for long.” He said.

“Those poor folks who have, until now, relied too much on the internet will now suffer from severe withdrawal symptoms.” Matsun commented.

“This sucks.” Sighed Maki, cocking his head to the side.

“So, should we look for medial books? Don’t worry. I watched enough Grey’s anatomy. I know that when a bone’s poking out, then that’s probably not normal.” Issei laughed, and Maki snorted.

“We won’t need your vast knowledge of hospital tv shows because I am a nurse.” Said the strawberry-blonde-haired man.

“Now, I am even happier that I ran into you. Having nobody to talk to is booooring.” The raven drawled out.

“At least you, we know you won’t end up talking to a beat-down volleyball named ‘Wilis’” Maki snickered.

“Nah. You won’t have to fight a beat-down volleyball for that spot.” Matsun said, smiling.


	2. Unknown Disease

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter focuses on Akaashi and Bokuto, as well as Oikawa and Iwaizumi.

_“Hey, Akaashi! Have you seen this?” Heather asked Akaashi, pointing at her computer screen._

_Heather Garcia was a 30-year-old woman and worked for the same newspaper. Keiji blinked at her and looked over her shoulder._

_“No. I haven’t, but you are going to show me in no time.” Akaashi said, voice and face calm._

_“It’s crazy. Here.” She stated, clicking on the video._

_An amateur definitely took the video, given the shaking and swaying of the camera. There were several people on a sidewalk below a bridge at the Central Park, where the homeless often gathered. Runners were running through the picture, but what caught Keiji’s attention was the figure, a man, swaying around and walking straight forward towards a homeless man, who was sitting on the ground, begging for money. One could have assumed the person, moaning and groaning, was inebriated, but Akaashi doubted that because of the recent reports. However, this was one of the better videos because most were too shaky or dark. The homeless man wore a rain jacket over which he had put several layers of plastic bags. The man looked up, and Keiji guessed he must have a confused expression because the person walking directly towards him seemed to be with no orientation. The homeless man offered him his sandwich, and suddenly he attacked, biting and clawing at the helpless screaming man on the ground. The bad filming abilities of the person behind the camera and the ‘Oh my god’ ‘Oh my god’ rants made it hard to concentrate on the scene. The people around looked shocked and screamed too, but they did nothing; feet either frozen to the ground or being used to run away. The police arrived later, likely having been called by one of the passers-bys or onlookers. They aimed their guns at the attacker, calling out to him. Several times, they demanded he stop, but the assault didn’t end. The groaning and hissing man only stopped when the police got the permission to fire a lethal shot, and a bullet went through his head. And with that the video ended._

_Akaashi wondered why they just stood there, demanding the guy to stop, instead of intervening. He narrowed his eyes at the screen and knew that this was worth investigating._

_“What do you think?” his colleague asked, closing the tab._

_“I’ll look into it.” He answered swiftly, grabbing his bag from his chair and leaving the building._

_Akaashi talked to several eyewitnesses and even the police. It turned out that they were either not sure about the things they had witnessed or reluctant to talk about it._

_Now, he was standing in front of a one family home in the suburban area of the town. The house had a poorly kept garden, the flowers had already whittled away, and weeds grew everywhere. Akaashi frowned. Why would you have a garden if you didn’t take proper care of it? The facade of the house was a plain white. Simple and common. Keiji was about to enter the small gate when the main door opened, and a young man exited the house._

_“Mr Roberts? My name is Keiji Akaashi from the Opinions magazine. I wanted to ask you some questions about an incident you have come to witness. You were the person who took the video.” The raven-haired man said. It wasn’t easy to find out the names, but he had his ways._

_“Incident? Do you mean that drug addict who bit off another person’s face?” Mr Robert asked, already knowing that he referred to the incident Keiji was talking about._

_“Yes. Would you tell me what you saw? How did the person behave? Did he say something? Was he provoked?” Keiji bombarded the man with questions, getting out his notebook and pen, ready to note every detail._

_“I don’t remember. Really. I think he just attacked him. He made weird noises, like he had trouble breathing, and his eyes looked glazed over, but other than that... I don’t know.” The man rambled, scratching the back of his head._

_“But you started filming even before he attacked.” Akaashi stated._

_“Because he walked funnily and made these weird noises.” The man justified._

_‘Weird noises?’ He already mentioned that, Akaashi noted._

_“Describe weird noises. What did they sound like? Was there anything else?” Keiji pressed. He just had to know more. He might be onto something._

_“Look. I don’t really remember. Everything went so fast, and the police said he was on drugs.” Mr Roberts said, his posture changing slightly. He looked visibly annoyed now._

_“So, the police did make a statement, huh.” Akaashi mumbled to himself. “Can you imitate the noises?” he then asked._

_“You reporters are really annoying. I don’t know. Something like ‘arg grr chr’ or a shallow breathing sound from the back of the throat, like when you have asthma and can barely breath. Are we done now? I gotta go.” He said, rolling his eyes. He didn’t even attempt to hide his annoyance._

_“What did the pol--.” Akaashi started, but Mr Roberts ran past him._

_Keiji read over his notes:_

  * _Groaning and hissing noises_
  * Swaying à motoric dysfunction?
  * Police à cause: intoxication or drugs?



_Akaashi stood at the gate, tapping his pen against his lower lip and chewing on it. He turned around and started walking down the sidewalk. About 20 meters away, he noticed several cigarette stumps centred at one spot at a tree, littering the ground. Akaashi narrowed his eyes, wondering whether these stumps were there before. He looked around, though he saw nothing out of the ordinary: People were walking towards the park, couples were holding hands and parents were playing with their children. Everything seemed normal, so why did he have such a wrenching feeling in his guts. Keiji continued his way to the bus station. His next stop was the police station. The officers had tried to brush him in the morning, but since Mr Roberts mentioned that minor detail about them knowing the probable ‘cause’, he would not give in so easily. He was going to put some pressure on them. Besides, Keiji knew - from reliable sources - that the medics didn’t perform an autopsy and thus no autopsy report could have been possibly given to the police which was why he was so suspicious._

_Akaashi stood in front of the police station after an agonisingly long drive on the underground. The underground had been crowded, and Akaashi had to make the unpleasant experience of a sexual misconduct as one passenger groped him. Keiji had thrown that pervert, who stood way too close to him and had the nerve to touch his ass, a nasty glare, but the guy didn’t seem bothered by it, pretending like it was the most common thing to do on the underground. Well, for some people it might have really been the most normal thing to do, but decent people didn’t, which was why Akaashi subtly elbowed him in the gut very hard. He made sure to hit him with the pointy bone of his elbow._

_The central police station wasn’t that big, and the Chief was an asshole, always trying to hide information from the press. Akaashi also figured that Chief Washio, a short white-haired man in his seventies, didn’t like him very much. The man used to be a high ranked member of the military, conducting and supervising operations. The townspeople elected the chief after he retired, although there weren’t any real competitors to begin with. Anyone would have one if their name was the only one on the ballot list._

_There were times at which Chief Washio completely ignored the reporter’s existence. The raven-haired man enjoyed living in this small town, despite the police’ and some locals’ unwillingness to talk. When he and Bokuto moved there, Keiji wasn’t too thrilled at first because he was used to the big city. The small town turned out to be a blessing, though. The newspaper he was with paid him decently, and his boss appreciated honesty and well-researched articles. His former boss only wanted to get the news out the fastest and before anyone else, whether the information was true or not._

_The station had settled into a new building several blocks away from the old one after a fire broke out two years ago. The station was in the centre of the town at a crossroad. The building was T-shaped, and there was a ramp and stairs that lead into the building. Below the railing, the stone read: We Protect Our Citizens! We Serve Our People!_

_Several blinders covered the large door-sized windows, and right next to the building was a big oak tree. Keiji read that an oak tree is a symbol of strength and morale and associated with traits such as nobility and honour._

_Akaashi entered the building and headed to the counter, telling the woman that he had an appointment, which he hadn’t, but he was persistent. She let him pass eventually and an officer led him to the Chief’s office. He pushed the door open, and the Chief made a displeased face upon seeing Akaashi._

_“Good evening, Sir.” Keiji greeted, his voice as monotone and polite as usual._

_“Mr Akaashi. What brings you here?” Chief Washio asked; a fake smile now in place._

_“May I sit down?” Akaashi asked, and the Chief made a gesture with his hand as to say: ‘Go ahead’._

_“I wanted to ask about the incidents. I heard you knew what might have cause the assault. I’d ask you to make a statement.” Akaashi said, getting his recorder and his notebook ready._

_“The investigation is closed. We assume drugs to have caused the assault because the perpetrator was well known among the drug users and had been arrested several times on drug charges.” The man said with cold eyes._

_“Have you performed an autopsy?” inquired Akaashi, observing the man in front of him, curious about the answer he may get._

_“I assessed the case and deemed an autopsy unnecessary. The man was taken down by several police officers and died through a shot in the head.” The Chief said, and it impressed Keiji that he told the truth about no autopsy having been performed. “The lab tested some of his blood, and they found traces of methamphetamine and other drugs in his bloodstream. We concluded the drug caused his aggressive behaviour.”_

_“I was told that the perpetrator was groaning and hissing. I was also told that he only went down after being shot several times, which wouldn’t be called normal behaviour, even for a drug addict wouldn’t you agree.” Akaashi quirked an eyebrow. He wasn’t buying any of the Chief’s bullshit. There was no autopsy, and he also knew that there was no blood or tox screen either._

_“These are fairytales Mr Akaashi. You shouldn’t believe everything people tell you. Now if you’d excuse me, I need to tend to my work. You can see yourself out.” Chief Washio stated, propping his elbows onto the oak table and leaning his chin onto the back of both his hands; his gaze calculating._

_“I’ll take my farewell then. But this is not the last time you will see me here.” Akaashi said as he stood up from his seat. He studied the Chief, noticing the downfall of the man’s lips._

_When he left the police station, Keiji recognised an officer from the video. The man had black hair and was standing next to the patrol car; a to-go coffee in his right hand. Akaashi walked towards him and halted right in front of the officer, holding his ID into the officer’s face._

_“Akaashi Keiji, journalist. May I ask you some questions?” he asked straightforwardly._

_The officer jumped back a little in surprise. “Eh. Of course?”_

_“You have been there at the Central Park incident, where the attack happened below the bridge along the river. Have you noticed anything out of the ordinary about the perpetrator such as groaning and hissing, maybe a weird smell?” Akaashi asked, observing the officer who was, without a doubt, a rookie._

_“Well, the—”_

_“Hey, Goshiki! Who are you talking to?” a tall man with red hair, probably his partner, said. He was leaning onto Goshiki’s shoulder, eying Akaashi suspiciously._

_“Ah, I wasn’t talking to anyone.” He said._

_“The Chief was asking for you.” Tendou said, and the rookie visibly paled, but he ran into the building at high speed, and Keiji inwardly screamed._

_“Well, then. Have a nice day Mr Reporter.” Tendou said, and Akaashi rolled his eyes._

_When he passed the tall man; however, he pressed a note into his hand, walking into the police station, without looking at Akaashi. The raven-haired man walked several blocks until he read the note. He fished it out of his pockets and unfolded the cramped-up paper. The handwriting was horrible, but he was used to deciphering Bokuto’s, so this was nothing to him._

_‘ACDS’_

_Several days later, Akaashi found out what ‘ACDS’ meant. It was the abbreviation for ‘acute cerebrum deterioration syndrome’, the disease that was spreading over the globe at a concerning and rapid pace._

_These incidents, he was researching into, also became more frequent, and Keiji had connected them to the disease immediately. Some people, who suddenly attacked others randomly and without reason, seemed to have previously shown symptoms of the mysterious disease. However, his boss had shut Akaashi down multiple times, and he didn’t even get the opportunity to publish his article because everything went to shit first. He was in at the office when it happened._

*****

They didn’t believe him when he first told them. And now the infected people were walking about killing and turning people into one of them. Keiji was cooped up with Bokuto who he had called in a frenzy. He had never been so panicked before, but when Bokuto didn’t pick up the phone the first time, his heart had stopped beating for a moment. Luckily, he had called Keiji back, and he’d had never been so relieved. They met up at their apartment before having been transported to a camp several miles away from the town in a remote area. The military was sent out and had been evacuating people from different places. The town’s small population turned out to be rather beneficial in their case. But what worried Keiji was the fact that they were sitting in a closed down area insider a building that looked like a shelter for the homeless with about several hundreds of people inside. They weren’t even given instructions. They were merely told that they are to wait for the commander to show up. The hall was empty, except for all the people. They had to sit on the icy floor, only their belongings they could gather up and the clothes on their body with them.

“I don’t like this, Kou. I don’t like this at all.” Keiji whispered, further leaning into his fiancée’s side.

“Don’t worry.” Bokuto tried to appease him, but the serious expression on his face didn’t match his words. Seeing him so tense was a rare sight for Akaashi.

“Do you think…” he looked around, checking if someone was eavesdropping on them, and then continued: “Do you think… we could just leave? So many people centred in on place can’t be safe…”

“Yeah. Let’s just go.” Koutaro said, hosting Akaashi up with one powerful pull.

They walked through the sea of people, trying to manoeuvre their way through them, accidentally stepping on some of their stuff or pumping into them. It was a good thing they were so close to the exit, otherwise they would have caused more ruckus.

“Watch where you are going!” a woman hissed.

“’m sorry, mam!” Bokuto apologised.

“Prick.” She mumbled, and Akaashi shot her a glare.

They were about to leave when the door to the hall opened, revealing a man, dressed in the traditional army’s uniform. Several badges and medals adorned his clothes, showing that he was of high rank.

“Nobody is to leave the hall.” He stated, motioning for them to sit down again.

“Why not? What’s going on?” Bokuto asked calmly, challenging the man in front of him. They were about the same height, though Bokuto was at least over 30 years younger.

“Sit down, boy.” The man said with authority, showing the gun that was secured to his uniform. They got the message.

“We don’t want any escalation, Sir.” Akaashi addressed the soldier respectfully. Let’s get back Kou.” He said, pulling Bokuto with him. The taller complied reluctantly.

They sat down again and Bokuto turned towards him: “But Keiji we shouldn’t stay here.”

“I know. Let’s just wait for the right moment.” Akaashi explained, leaning closer to the dual-haired man.

He could hear the murmurs and whispers around him; the people were getting nervous. The soldier from before got in front of the crowd, back straight and expression neutral. The hall went silent; the aura of authority the man gave off was intimidating. He had short-trimmed hair, and a hat was sitting on top of it. Bokuto said the hat looked stupid.

“Attention, everyone!” the man started; his tone even and not too loud, yet the walls carried his voice through the hall. “My name is Nobuteru Irihata, Commander of the 5th division. The area has been cleared so far, and we consider it safe. We’ll evacuate everyone to another area after a brief check-up. About 30 people will be escorted outside to the tents, where their condition will be evaluated by our medical staff. After that, everyone with a positive check-up notice from our doctor is safe for evacuation. This process will go until we have checked everyone. No exceptions. You’ll be required to state your name, birth and prior conditions. So, stay put and wait until you are escorted outside.”

The people murmured loudly among themselves after Commander Irihata told them what was about to happen. Keiji noticed that two soldiers were standing at every corner of the building; all of them heavily armed. He assumed they were to get a physical examination to make sure none of them was infected, although he was worried about those the doctors deemed ‘unfit’. Would they be left behind? Or worse, eliminated? Bokuto took his hand and squeezed it tightly.

“What do you think happens to those that fail the check-up?” Kotarou asked him lowly.

“I don’t know.” Keiji whispered back.

“Do you think our friends are alright? I haven’t seen them.” Bokuto said with concern sleeping through his voice.

“They’ll be fine. The hall is enormous. Maybe the rescue troops evacuated them to another area.” Keiji reasoned, trying to ease his fiancée’s worries.

“You’re probably right.” Said Bokuto, leaning his head onto Akaashi’s shoulder.

The soldiers escorted several people outside, and Akaashi watched the process intently. The presence of the military held the crowd in check. After what felt like an eternity, they were finally next. Bokuto had been fidgeting for a while now because sitting still for a long time wasn’t something he’d usually do.

“Follow me.” A tall bulky soldier with a curly beard said. His bald egg-shaped head was red from the sunburn. Keiji had to elbow Bokuto who had trouble holding back his laughter.

“Stop that. It’s not funny.” Akaashi whispered. He tried to sound reprimanding but snorted himself.

“But pff it is ssuch pff an... angry red.” Snickered Bokuto.

The area was vast and desolate, and the military had set several tents up. Soldiers controlled and secured the area. Transporters were being filled with people, but some were led to an encircled area. The white stripe marking a line they weren’t allowed to step over. The soldiers were in charge made sure of that.

“What happens to those who fail the examination?” Akaashi asked the soldier that was leading them towards a tent. He didn’t answer.

“Wow, so talkative.” He grumbled. What’s with people always refusing to answer his questions?

“Hey, you with the egghead.” Bokuto said loudly, hands in his pockets. “what’s with the people behind that white line?” he asked. Akaashi wanted to scream at his tactlessness.

“I don’t have the authority to tell you.” The soldier said. He sounded irritated, and Bokuto frowned.

There were five big tents lined next to each other, and each tent had about five people waiting in front. Akaashi looked back at the people in the circle, still wrecking his head about it. He knew they were ruled out and had ultimately failed the examination, but on what grounds? They had to disclose prior medical conditions, which worried Akaashi because he didn’t know what kind of precondition labelled you ‘unfit’. A slight medical problem could therefore be someone’s downfall. Akaashi could understand it because if looked at from a rational and pragmatic perspective, ‘sick’ people require medical expense such as medication, which might soon be hard to get your hands on with the production down. From a humanist perspective; however, nobody should be left behind because of sickness. It was immoral to label someone unworthy of being saved because the expenses would be too high. Someone among the group of about 20 people got upset, pacing around inside the circle; his agitation visible in his entire demeanour. He talked to one of the soldiers; his expression changing from angry to desperate and scared. Akaashi felt sorry for him.

“Next one. You.” The armed soldier, watching the tent, addressed Bokuto; the name tag read: Ito

He and Akaashi were about to enter when Akaashi was stopped. “Only one at a time.” The man scolded.

“Why?” Bokuto asked, not letting go of Akaashi’s hand.

“It’s the rule.” Ito said.

“But we saw two or more people enter the tent at the same time.” Akaashi protested.

“Only family members may enter as pairs or family.” The soldier answered.

“We are engaged.” Bokuto piqued in, looking down at the man, who was about 5 inches smaller than he, even 2 inches smaller than Akaashi.

“So, you’re one of those.” Ito commented, letting them pass. Akaashi frowned. What did he mean by ‘one of those’?

They entered the tent, and Akaashi was surprised by how spacious it was inside because from the outside, it didn’t make the impression of being big. The room was equipped with all kind of gear: a stretcher, other medical equipment, a desk and so on. A woman, the examiner, sat in a chair and motioned them to come closer and set down. Bokuto and Akaashi sat down onto the folding chairs, turning their attention towards the woman. She had two soldiers assist her.

“Name and age.” She asked Bokuto. She didn’t even introduce herself. How rude.

“Kotarou Bokuto. I am 23 years old.”

“Do you have any prior illnesses or any other medical history? Prescribed drugs?” She continued while taking notes.

“No, mam.” He answers earnestly, shaking his head as a sign of negation.

“Good.” She nodded approvingly and then fixed her honey-brown eyes on Akaashi.

“Name and Age?” she asked again.

“Keiji Akaashi. I am 22 years old.” He answered, feeling uneasy suddenly.

“Prior Illnesses, medical conditions or prescriptive dr—,“ she said, but loud screams and gunshots interrupted her mid-sentence.

Akaashi and Bokuto turned into the direction from where the shots came from. The soldiers that were with the doctor rushed outside immediately after hearing the commotion. The noises and screams got louder, and another shot was fired followed by another one. Akaashi clawed at the arms of the folding chair; he wanted to get out of there. As if on cue, Bokuto grabbed Akaashi’s hand, pulling the raven with him. The outside was chaotic. One tent was burning, and the people, previously confined in the white circle had broken free. There were screams and gunfire, and then suddenly, the first person turned, attacking one soldier and biting into his throat. It dug its teeth into the vulnerable flesh, letting go just to bite right into the open blood-splashing wound again. The blood splattered out rapidly, painting the sandy ground a deep mournful red. The man, who couldn’t have been older than Keiji, screamed in pain and fear, gurgling and choking on his own blood that was flooding his windpipe. The turned person was eating his flesh and then, more of these things came to gnaw at the now dead body of the soldier. Akaashi stood there, shocked by the gruesome scene.

“---. Kei---. Keiji. KEIJI!!” Bokuto yelled, tearing Akaashi out of his trance, shaking his body back and forth. “We have to leave.”

“The truck!” said Akaashi, pointing in front of them.

They ran towards the vehicle, raising the dust of the dry sand where their boots hit the ground. The screams were deafening and the soldier’s death, the fearful faces of the surrounding people, and the humans that started to behaving like monsters burnt themselves into his memory.

They had almost reached the truck when the tires of the vehicle started to moving and screeching. They yelled after it, the inhalation of the dust making them cough and shield their eyes with their arms.

“Wait!” Bokuto yelled through coughing, and the truck came to an abrupt halt. Akaashi could barely see anything; the dust from before stinging his eyes and making sight blurry.

“Bo?” came a familiar voice, and Akaashi recognised it as the voice of Tetsurou Kuro.

“Bo? Is that you?” The raven-haired man asked.

“Kuro!” Bokuto yelled; relief in his voice when he saw his friend.

“Hurry and get in!” he yelled, and Akaashi and Bokuto jumped into the truck with 10 other people, they didn’t know, but they had to get away from there as fast as possible. Kuro drove the car at full speed, trying not to lose control over the truck, despite the speed.

Akaashi sighed in relief, still tense and full of adrenaline. He leaned into Bokuto’s firm chest, taking one last glance at the area that was supposed to be safe. The soldiers had latched the entrance of the warehouse, and those still inside were hammering against the door, screaming. He watched several other trucks leave the scene. As the distance grew everything turned into tiny little dots, and the screams and cries died down, though only because they were too far away to hear the chaos and misery anymore. Akaashi felt Kotarou’s arm tighten around him. He buried his face into the crook of Akaashi’s neck and took a deep breath.

“They locked them in there...” Bokuto whispered with a strained voice for only Keiji to hear.

“I know...” sighed Akaashi. He didn’t want to think about that.

“Should... should we have helped? I feel bad for looking away.” The man with bi-coloured hair said lowly, pushing Akaashi closer.

“It’s pointless to think about it now,” Akaashi reasoned, “you don’t have to feel guilty. Guilt is a heavy burden to carry, and it’s likely that we’ll get to know what true guilt feels like more often from now on.”

“Never ever leave me.” Bokuto mumbled.

“I won’t.” Akaashi whispered back, running his fingers through the messy mop that was Bokuto’s hair.

Oikawa Tooru stared at the ceiling of the small and confined room that he had been staying at for about three days now after having been evacuated. He was lucky to have escaped the medical check-up due to knowing Hajime Iwaizumi who served in the military. He had a knee injury when he was younger, but the cartilage damage in his left knee occurred later because of overexertion. He was afraid his medical history would have labelled him ‘unfit’, which was why Hajime smuggled him in, the same way he did with others, telling them to not mention their medical record.

Being in that evacuation camp meant boredom. They were told to stay put and wait for further instructions, but so far there had been none. Food rations were small, and the tension among the group grew very day they were without further notice of the situation. They had no electricity, and no running water. They were just hanging about the room or outside, waiting for the day to end and the next day to come. Some soldiers did as they pleased, storming into a room under false pretence and doing as they pleased. Women were forced to perform sexual acts for water or food sometimes, and men weren’t treated any better either. Nobody talked about it, though. It was a silent agreement between the people and those in charge to just look the other way. There was always a bunch of rotten apples everywhere you went, and one was already one too many. It was horrible. Tooru wanted to get out of here as soon as possible. They should feel safe, but how could someone feel secure in an environment that used the chaotic situation and them not knowing what was going on to their advantage to oppress and misuse their authority. People usually trusted men and women in uniforms. They personified safety, protection and security.

Oikawa had blinded the windows with a large cloth, securing it there by using a stapler. A ray of sunlight still sneaked through a crack, and Oikawa grabbed for it, closing and enclosing his hand while staring absentmindedly through the room that he shared with ten other people he didn’t even now.

A loud knock got him back to reality.

“Tooru? May I come in?” a female voice asked. It’s the voice he least wanted to hear right now.

“It’s not like a can stop you.” He commented.

The woman with beautiful long black hair smiled, not taking offense at all. Kiyoko had such a good and gentle soul. She was smart, talented and modest, which was probably why Iwaizumi married her. Oikawa, on the other hand was loud and sometimes reckless, but he was pretty and smart too. Iwa-chan had been his best friend since primary school, and the brunette fell in love with him around high school. At some point, he thought that he might have a chance with the dark-haired man, but Iwaizumi went to serve in the military and when he came back, he was engaged to this girl. To put it simply, Oikawa had been jealous of her ever since, and his jealousy, frustration and bitterness increased when she got to marry the man that he always wanted. Tooru reasoned he knew him so much longer and so much better. He was even ready to give up on his feelings for Hajime, but one drunken night, the man pushed him up against a wall and kissed him passionately; teeth and tongue all included. They ended up having sex that night, but the next day Iwaizumi told him it was a mistake, and that they should forget what happened. It hurt. It had hurt him deeply, but Oikawa knew they were more than just friend, that Iwa-chan was just in denial. How could he forget about it when Iwaizumi kissed him with vigour and passion and touched his skin with lustful hands over and over again. Afterwards, he’d always say that it meant nothing, that he loved Kiyoko. Sometimes, Tooru felt guilty towards Kiyoko, but on other days, he just didn’t care because he felt angry and jealous. He wanted to hate her. But, how could he? She was a lovely person; strong and good-willed while Tooru was always told that he had a nasty and annoying personality.

The woman looked at him and carefully closed the door behind her; expression growing serious.

“We’ll leave tonight.” She whispered.

“Fucking finally.” Oikawa said.

“Just act naturally. We don’t want anyone to find out.” Kiyoko said with a neutral face.

“I am not stupid.” Oikawa grumbled, crunching up his nose.

The girl nodded and left the room, and about an hour later Iwaizumi entered, looking behind him to make sure no one had followed him.

“Only pack things you can carry. Convenient things, not stupid stuff.” He commented, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest.

“Iwa-chaan!” he whined exasperatingly. “What do you think I am gonna pack? 20 bottles of hair product?”

“Wouldn’t be so far-fetched wouldn’t it?” Iwaizumi said, raising an eyebrow at the brunette.

“You are mean!” said Oikawa, rolling around on the mattress.

Then he jumped up, closing the distance between him and the raven-haired man. He wore military boots, and the traditional military uniform. Iwaizumi looked good in uniforms. It made him look even more masculine. Oikawa met Hajime’s gaze and leaned his head onto the man’s shoulder, gripping the front of his uniform.

“Don’t.” Iwaizumi said, tearing Tooru’s hands of him and putting some distance between them.

“What? I am not doing anything.” The brunette whispered with half-lidded eyes, closing the distance again, gently touching the side of Iwaizumi’s face.

“You know what I mean.” He sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose in annoyance. “We can’t keep doing this. I am married.”

“Why not? Being married didn’t stop you before.” Oikawa frowned, biting his lips harshly to the point of bleeding.

“Stop looking at me with that face.” Iwaizumi said lowly, pushing the brunette away.

His rejection hurt. Oikawa averted his eyes, trying hard not to cry right now.

“Oh, I am sooo sorry, but that’s my normal face.” Oikawa croaked out, but he knew what the man in front of him meant to say.

“Just go pack some essentials. I’ll come get you later. I’ll knock at the door 5 times. First twice and after a pause another three times. Then, you’ll know it’s me.” He explained, and then he went to open the door, though he turned around once more.

“Don’t go to the food distribution today. Just wait here.” Hajime said, and then he left.

Toru stared at the door for a while longer, gripping the front of his shirt. He hated it when Iwa-chan acted like that; so cold and distant. But he let him do what he wanted anyway because Toru loved him. He’d always love him. He enjoyed the sexual intimacy and ignored the Hajime’s claim that they only had meaningless sex. Oikawa ignored it because it was easier that way. Sometimes, Iwaizumi was so cruel to him, but on other days, he’ll be gentle and nice, and Toru would get that warm fuzzy feeling in his stomach.

Noon went by, and his roommates came back. He didn’t converse or associated himself with them. Why would he anyway? The place got cramped, and he had to move from the bed, since it was reserved for the three children. None of them were closely related or knew each other, but everyone came to agree that it was best to let the children have the small bed in the middle of the room. The rest, including Oikawa, had to sleep on futons on the floor. Eleven people in one small room was suffocating. There was no privacy at all. The Sato family was the most annoying of the bunch because Mrs and Mr Sato barely managed to control their loud and nosy children – two girls, Mia and Ava, but Oikawa wasn’t sure if these were their names. One woman was about his age. She was also super obnoxious, and the other one was in her fifties and accompanied by her two sons. The last one was a little boy who couldn’t be older than four. He was on his own and hadn’t said a word once during the past three days. Toru wondered where his guardians were.

10 minutes before the clock hit 6 pm, and the Sato family left, making their way to the food distribution. After that the others went to go to the supply too, hoping to get a bigger ration this time.

“Aren’t you going?” one of them asked.

“It’s not even 6 o’clock yet. I’ll wait until it’s less crowded.” He lied effortlessly.

“Suit yourself.” He said, leaving the room.

Toru waited for a moment before he moved to gather some of his belongings. He stuffed them into his backpack and strapped it on, waiting for Iwaizumi to pick him up. It was only logical to leave while everyone was busy getting their daily supply of food. That way, they could use the open time window to get away undetected. How they would get past the heavily armed soldiers guarding the exit, Oikawa didn’t know. Hajime didn’t tell him anything, which irked him. The brunette sat on the bed and sighed, scratching the back of his head angrily. Then, he turned his head looking eyes with the boy who didn’t talk. Oikawa gaped at him in shock; his mouth opening and closing like a fish that had just been pulled out of the water. The kid eyed him, though his expression stayed neutral. Not being able to read someone freaked Toru out, especially if that someone was a child. Children had the tendency to say creepy things sometimes.

“Why are you still here?!” Oikawa said, stumbling over his own words. The boy said nothing. He just stared.

The boy cocked his head to the side; his eyes boring into Oikawa, who broke out into a cold sweat. The child had black hair and blue eyes, and his lack of facial expressions was disturbing. He wore an old pullover that was too big for him, jeans and sneakers on his tiny feet.

“You’re creepy.” Oikawa told the boy, turning his head away. The child didn’t talk, so he wouldn’t tell anyone that they left.

Two consecutive knocks on the door startled the brunette, and then there was a pause, and another three knocks. ‘Iwa-chan!’ Toru though and jumped up, opening the door.

“Iw—” Oikawa wanted to say, but Iwaizumi stopped him by pushing his hand over the brunette’s face, signing him to be quiet.

“Keep your voice down Trashykawa. Don’t talk. Just follow me.” Hajime hissed lowly, releasing Oikawa from his grasp.

Toru huffed and mumbled out a ‘so rude’. They left the room and sneaked towards a remote area controlled by soldiers. They pushed themselves through a narrow path until they reached a drain that was covered with leaves and dirt. He saw Kiyoko and four other people, waiting for them.

“This sewer runs directly underneath the street. I’ve seen the blueprints. It’ll give us a way out of here.” Hajime explained, heaving the metal cover from the sewer channel.

“Let’s introduce everyone first. You all know who I and Hajime are, so let’s start with you Toru.” Kiyoko said, and Toru rolled his eyes.

“I am Toru Oikawa.” He drawled out, making a disinterested gesture with his hand. Iwaizumi hit him over the head for that.

“Ouch! What was that for?” he asked, rubbing the back of his head.

“Don’t be a prick.” Hajime stated firmly.

A blonde, small girl stepped forward and bowed down. “I am Hitoka Yachi. Nice to meet you. I am 16 years old.”

The next one had brown hair and freckles. He looked nervous as fuck. “I am Tadashi Yamaguchi. I am 16.”

“I am Kenji Futakuchi.” A tall guy with short brown hair said. He was average in built, and his bangs fell to the side of his face.

Then, Futakuchi pointed his thumb to the person next to him, speaking for him: “This is Takanobu Aone. He doesn’t talk much.” He said, and the tall man with white trimmed hair and a serious expression on his face, bowed.

“Now. Let’s move.” Iwaizumi said, pointing at the tunnel.

“Ew. No way I am gonna go down there.” Oikawa protested, covering his nose because it smelled disgusting.

“Shut up! You go or I throw you down there.” Iwaizumi stated, glaring at Oikawa.

“You’re so rude. I’ll let you know I am quite delicate.” Oikawa whined, putting his hands on his hips in a dramatic fashion.

“Delicate, my ass. Get down there. By the way, who’s that kid who’s with you?” he asked, and the brunette looked at him with confused eyes.

“Kid? What kid?” he asked, turning around to see the boy whom he shared a room with. He squeaked and jumped a little, pointing a finger at the child.

“What are you doing here!?” he asked, but the boy kept quiet as always.

“Keep your voice down Idiotkawa.” Iwaizumi said, once again clutching his hand over Oikawa’s mouth. He was too close. It made the brunette flustered.

“We can’t send him back, and he obviously knows you.” Kiyoko said, and Toru glared at her.

“What’s your name little man?” Kiyoko asked, crouching down to him, so they were on the same eye-level with each other.

The raven-haired boy stared at hair before hiding behind Oikawa, clinching to his pants.

“Hey! Don’t cling onto me. Stupid kid!” protested Toru, throwing the boy who was standing next to him, the stinky eye. The kid didn’t do anything, though. He was just standing there way too close to him.

“Let’s not waste time. Let’s move.” Iwaizumi ordered, and Oikawa ultimately had to climb down the sewer against his will.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked the chapter. Leave comments and kudos!


	3. Hitting the Road

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Took me some time to post this, even though it was already written and just needed to be edited, but here's chapter 3.

Maki’s eyes slowly fluttered open, adjusting to the sun’s bright light that was falling through the small window at the other side of the copy room. His head still felt dizzy, and he tried to rub the sleepiness out of his eyes. Maki yawned and let sleep claim his mind once more. So, he turned his body into a slightly more comfortable position and nuzzled into the warm and firm surface below him, sighing in content, though he jumped away when he realised whom he had snuggled up to.

He looked at the dark-haired man and carefully studied his sleeping face. Maki was glad that his rash movement hadn’t torn Mattsun out of his deep slumber. It seemed like the guy slept like a hibernating bear. ‘That could have been embarrassing.’ he thought solemnly, stretching his tired muscles to get his body going. He leaned back against the wall and sighed again, bringing his knees to his chest in one quick motion. Maki wondered how his family was doing. His coming here was supposed to be a short time visit over the weekend, but he doubted anything would go back to normal any time soon.

He was sitting in a small room in the library with a guy who he just met yesterday; the guy who kind of saved his ass. Maki’s eyes bored holes into the photocopier and the computers in front of him as if those devices would just magically come to life. His mind was a mess. He’d never expected to experience something like that. Hell, he didn’t even think it were possible. Who would?! Maki pondered if his parents were okay or if they had been caught between the teeth and jaws of the sick. He shuddered at the thought, and tears swelled in his eyes. He didn’t want to think of his parents dying, screaming and in pain and eventually turning. He shook his head; some of his hair sticking to his face because of the heat in the room. He willed the tears down, trying to get a gentle, happy imagery of happily grazing cows in the meadow on a big farm into his head. He should think about joyous things, not death, even though death seemed so much more real right now. Death could lurk right behind the door, despite them having checked the building. Death could await them everywhere. Death had become their shadow ever since people became sick and turn into human-eating monsters.

The day before had been hectic. When he arrived in his hometown after a long drive, he was excited to see his parents again, but instead of being welcomed by his mom and dad holding an old-school ‘welcome home’ sign, he was greeted by the familiar faces of some villagers who very much tried to eat him. On his drive there, he suspected that the town might have already been evacuated because he saw a lot of cars, vans and motorcycles leave in a hurry. Maki managed to avoid the traffic jam by using a secret shortcut that barely anyone knew about, not even the locals.

He had heard about the sick behaving oddly, and he had witnessed those symptoms in some patients in the hospital that he worked at, but the attacks and assaults were new. They started about two days ago. Most of the staff was sent home, including him, but it was on a brief notice, hence the visit to his family. Maki had been relieved when the hospital administration thought it best to send them home, despite the precarious situation the hospitals and clinics had been faced with. Every day, more and more people came in with the same symptoms of a sickness the doctors knew nothing about, and the government had trouble containing. One would have thought stocking up on staff would have been the most plausible option, but treating those patients were deemed too dangerous. Doctors, nurses, assistants and even family members had been victims of vicious attacks; attacks everybody knew by then was caused by the disease – medical staff or not.

Maki escaped the not so warm welcome, but when he got to his parents’ house, they were nowhere to be found. He tried to call them, searched every corner of the house, but they were gone. Panic had gripped his entire body, so he stayed in the house for hours just waiting. He waited, but his parents remained untraceable. The ‘zombies’ had started piling up at his door, so he had to make a run for it. He probably hadn’t had the best timing because, like in every trash horror movie, he fell over a pile of rubbish, causing a loud noise to echo through the street which the undead had seized. They had noticed him – of course – so he took flight and had to let go of his backpack. Later that night, he found himself cornered and luckily saved by a stranger when he had already given up hope and thought that he was going to get butchered and torn into pieces by a hoard of zombies; not the most graceful death, but certainly the most gruesome.

Maki jabbed Mattsun with his elbow to get him up; his loud snoring disrupting his thoughts. The latter grunted but opened his eyes, grumbling under his breath.

  
“Finally, you are awake.” Maki commented, getting up from the floor.

  
“Could have woken me up more tenderly.” Mattsun yawned, not mentally present yet.

  
“Let’s just get out of here. This place is, for some reasons, giving me the creeps.” Answered Maki.

  
“I think it’s cosy.” Mattsun said, leisurely scratching his back whilst twisting his body so that the bones would pop and crack. 

  
“The colours in this room are depressing. Let’s get out of here.” Responded Maki, ignoring the comment about the alleged cosiness of the room. 

  
“Sure thing. What’s the plan, though?” the dark-haired male asked, looking expectantly at the other man.

  
“Out of this town. It’s not safe. We just need to get out of this building and get a car or anything.” Maki explained as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

  
“We’ve got the blueprints of this building.” Mattsun said, rummaging through a carton they used to carry the things they looked through. 

  
The dark-haired man pulled a paper roll out of the cardboard box and rolled it out on the vinyl floor, securing the map with the bottles of water on each corner.

  
“Getting out of here shouldn’t be a big issue, though getting a vehicle to use might be more difficult. We need to go onto the roof and from there, we use the rain gutter here to climb down.”

  
“I am slightly acrophobic.” Maki suddenly pointed out, chewing at his bottom lip when he heard Mattsun mentioning going up to the roof and climbing down a god damn gutter. The thought alone made him feel uneasy.

  
“Well, that’s certainly not ideal.” Commented Issei.  
“Not ideal.” Takahiro deadpanned, repeating Mattsun’s words. 

  
“The area behind the building is surrounded by a high fence with a closed gate, so the possibility that there are zombies is almost zero.” Mattsun explained further, showing the area on the map. “Maybe we find a car there.”

  
“But the gate might be locked, so how are we going to get out of there without the keys and without being noticed. I’d like to avoid run-ins with a zombie as much as possible.” Added the light-haired man.

He really didn’t want to climb down a building, even if it was just a two-story building. He used to know the library inside out, but he had been gone for several years, and the building had been completely renovated, not resembling the library he used to know and spend his school days at, at all. 

  
“We climb over it. It’s not like there is barbed wire at the top of the fence. What library has barbwire?!” he asked rhetorically, rolling the map up again and putting it back into the box.

  
“… fine…” the light-brown haired man said, giving in.

  
“Then it’s settled.” Mattsun said and stood up, turning to Maki again with a gentle look on his face. “Don’t worry. I am not gonna let you fall off or anything.”

  
“Easy for you to say…” grumbled Maki, still anxious about climbing off the rooftop. 

When they arrived at the rooftop, Takahiro felt nauseous, despite standing in the middle of the roof. The roof itself was flat and plastered with small smooth pebbles that clattered beneath his feet. There was a small concrete wall that surrounded the top of the roof, but no railing. Maki followed Issei to the edge of the roof on shaky legs and peaked down. He felt dizzy at seeing the ground, he could hear his heart thumbing in his chest, and his head was spinning slightly just thinking about having to get down there.

He even had to sit down on his knees because he had the feeling that he might lose his balance. Stepladders and stools are fine, but roofs and other places that exceed two meters in height are not. Maki just wanted to get away from the situation as quickly as possible. He didn’t want to get up anymore, which was why he crawled away from the edge, although the roof was surrounded by a 50 cm brick wall. 

  
“Everything is going to be fine. Close your eyes and take a deep breath.” Mattsun said, also dropping to his knees, and Maki reluctantly did so.

He closed his eyes and took several deep breaths.  
His fear of heights wasn’t extreme, and he had been working on it. He had it ever since some bully pushed him down a 10 metre diving board at the vulnerable age of twelve.

  
“It doesn’t help. I just prefer ground level, that’s all.” The man with the pinkish hair answered nervously, digging his hands into the pebbles on the ground. 

  
“Don’t look down.” Stated the raven-haired man, giving Maki an encouraging nod. 

  
Takahiro watched as Issei prepared the rope that he had brought with him. At least, he wouldn’t have to climb of the gutter which was a positive thing. Mattsun placed one of the ropes in the centre of Maki’s lower back, so that either sides of the rope equalled in length and crossed the halves, and wrapped around his waist. He made a half hitch and turned the rope around itself once again. Several steps later the harness was done. Maki had already forgotten the first two steps. 

  
“I used to climb a lot when I was younger. Now you’ll be safe.” Issei told him, smiling up at him reassuringly.

He fastened the carabiner and pulled on it, lifting making on it to test if the carabiner was holding his weight. 

  
“If you say so.” Answered Maki. He was still unconvinced, but they had to get down that roof. 

  
“It’s not too tight, is it?” he asked, and Maki shook his head. Then Mattsun gave him some gloves, and the light-haired man blinked.

“You don’t want your skin to burn of your hands. Rappelling causes a lot of friction.” The raven explained and Takahiro nodded in understanding.

  
The black-haired man secured the other rope onto a sturdy metal pole and explained Maki how to lower himself down on a rope. 

  
“Everything clear?”

  
“I guess.”

  
“Don’t look down on the ground. Just concentrate on the task at hand. It’s not that high, only about 8, maybe 10 meters.”

  
It took Maki several attempts and a lot of encouragement to finally build up the courage. Mattsun had called it ‘exposure therapy’, but it didn’t really help him that much. In the end, he got down somehow, and when Maki felt solid ground beneath his feet, he was relieved. It hadn’t been that bad, and it didn’t scare him as much as he thought it would. Still, he preferred staying away from high places. He watched Mattsun climb down the gutter and doubted the black-haired male’s sanity for a moment or two.   
When they were both on the ground, Maki looked around and noticed the emergency staircase on the side of the building. He blinked. Then he frowned and turned towards Mattsun with a glare.

  
“Why are you glowering at me like this?”

  
“Because we could have used the emergency staircase, you oaf!” hissed Takahiro, hitting the other man over the head.

  
“Happens to the best of us.” Laughed Mattsun, playfully struggling with the other man. 

  
“See, there’s a caravan.” Issei pointed out, attracting Maki’s attention.

  
Maki followed, where the dark-haired man’s finger pointed at and raised an eyebrow. Behind the gate, a caravan was parked at the side of the road, seemingly abandoned. He narrowed his eyes suspiciously. Just because it looked abandoned didn’t necessarily mean that it was. The grass and weeds grew so high that it was covering most of the vehicle. 

  
“I don’t trust the situation. It’s too convenient.” Maki whispered, untangling the knots and getting out of the harness. 

  
“Yeah. Seems too convenient, and we haven’t heard or encountered any zombies yet. The carpark is mostly empty. It is weird. Let’s check it out though. At least it looks abandoned.” Mattsun responded in agreement.

  
Both men walked towards the gate; eyes darting around and scanning the area for any suspicious movement. They were both silent, so they wouldn’t draw attention to themselves and to avoid making their location known. When they reached it, Maki tested whether it could be opened. He rattled at the lock, noticing that it was indeed locked.

  
“Great. It’s locked.” He stated in annoyance.

  
Mattsun looked at him before he examined the gate himself. He made a gesture with his hand, indicating that Maki should step aside and that’s what the pink-haired man did. The raven lifted the latch and opened the gate, giving Maki a smug look. The latter crossed his arms over his chest, pouting.

  
“I was obviously testing you.” Maki said, leaving the entry gate.

  
“Sure.” Answered Mattsun with a grin, following his companion outside.

  
They were surrounded by trees, and the strange tranquillity of the place made them extra cautious because it seemed deceiving. They made their way to the caravan, stopping right in front of the vehicle’s closed door that was overgrown with ferns and bramble. Issei reached for the knob, intent on opening the door, but Maki stopped him. They exchanged worried looks. Then, Maki nodded and the dark-haired man opened the door, ready to enter the caravan. He stepped inside, and the other man turned around, watching the surroundings, in case something was about to jump out of the bushes and attack them. Nothing happened, though, but it didn’t ease the anxiety he felt bubbling in his stomach, making him feel slightly sick.

Suddenly, he heard Mattsun scream, and then a loud thud followed. Maki rushed inside the caravan to see what had happened.

  
“MATTSUN!” he called out in a panic.

He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the dead body of a man hanging on a rope that was secured on the ceiling; eyes lifeless, and yet the barely audible noises that came from his throat didn’t seem to fit the scene. Maki knew the old man, in fact, he had known the man for years. He was in his early 70s, and back in the day, he was the janitor at the local school. Seeing him like this, didn’t look right. Even though he was dead – his pale almost bluish face a clear indicator – he still moved; hands reaching out to get a hold of one of them. 

  
“Walked in and was greeted by that guy. Kinda scared me.” Mattsun answered, poking the dead man with the walking cane he had picked up from the floor.

  
“We have to get him out of here.” Maki said in a neutral voice and Mattsun nodded.

  
“So, who is gonna give him the final blow?” the black-haired male asked, though seeing that Takahiro didn’t answer, he continued: “Going by that look on your face, I will do it. That’s probably going to be messy.”

  
Mattsun got his knife and picked up the stool that laid fallen over on the ground by the dead man’s feet. He placed it at some distance to the moving corpse, getting into a position, in which he could make use of the knife. The man hadn’t been dead long, considering that the space didn’t smell of decay. Taking into account that he had died only recently, the raven decided it was best to aim for the eye. That way, he wouldn’t have to pierce through the still too thick bone of the skull.

Issei watched the corpse groan, arms reaching out towards him while it close and opened its jaw in a rapid, but fluid motion, trying to bite him. A gun would be kind of useful right now.

Since it was too dangerous to try to kill it while being within its reach, Mattsun decided to take another approach. He got behind the zombie, and while it was distracted by Maki’s presence, the raven-haired man slammed the knife between the small junction that connected the skull and the vertebrae, causing the wild movements of the zombie’s arms and jaw to abruptly stop. The noises; however, didn’t cease, which meant that its undead body – as ironic as it may sound – was pretty much still alive.

Mattsun got the job done and used another knife to destroy its brain. Due to the lack of a heartbeat that would pump the blood through a living being’s body, the killing wasn’t as messy as Issei thought it would be. The blood didn’t splatter all over the place, but ran out of the nose dead zombie’s corpse.

  
“Now we have to have it out of here.” Mattsun commented, getting the knife out of the dead man’s spine, in order to cut the rope.

The blade glided through the natural fibres easily, and the body fell onto the floor with a loud thud.

  
“Let’s hope that he’s got the keys on him.” Said Maki, dragging the body out of the van while Mattsun cleaned his knife.

  
”I would very much appreciate your assistance.” Maki mentioned sarcastically, waiting for the raven to help him.

  
“Your doing a good job there.” The man laughed instead, walking past the pink-haired man and waiting outside.

  
After Maki finally dragged the body outside, Mattsun pulled the second knife out. Takahiro leaned down, looking through the pockets of the man’s jacket and trousers until he found a bunch of keys dangling from a key chain.

  
“Let’s hope one of these fits.”

  
“Let’s first move him to the side of the road and maybe cover him up. I would feel bad if we just threw him on the road.” Mattsun said solemnly.

  
“Yeah. You’re right.” Maki answered his expression as solemn as that of the raven.

  
They lifted the old man’s body and carried him onto the side of the road, putting him onto the grassy ground. His eyes were closed and his arms folded over his stomach. If it weren’t for his sickly pale looks, he could have actually portrayed quite a peaceful imagery. Mattsun ripped the necklace that the man wore around his neck off of him, putting it into his pocket. Maki looked at him in disbelief.

  
“Are you seriously going to rob an old man? What for?”

  
“I am not robbing him. I just want the old man not to be forgotten. Let’s hang it on the front mirror of the caravan.”

  
“Okay.” Maki smiled, feeling bad about having accused him of robbing a dead person.

  
They were about to enter the caravan when they heard loud moans, growls and groans approaching them. There were a bunch of zombies heading their way; some coming from the woods while others came from the direction of the library.

  
“Let’s hurry!” squeaked Maki and Mattsun followed him inside the vehicle, locking the door behind them.

  
The raven-haired man ran to the driver’s seat, trying to find the right key while the caravan was shook from the outside. The zombies hammered against the vehicle, two getting to the front and hitting against the glass window. Maki sat in the passenger seat, instructing the other male to hurry the fuck up. When Mattsun found the right one, he put it into the ignition, turning the key around.

  
The engine made rumbling noises, though it died down immediately. Issei and Maki exchanged a look of horror as the engine died down the second time.

  
“No reason to panic. Let’s stay calm.” Issei said in a slightly worried voice that didn’t match his neutral expression.

  
“I AM THE CALMEST I HAVE EVER BEEN!” Maki laughed humourlessly, trying his best not to panic.

  
Mattsun hit onto the front several times, staring the engine anew while the hoard of zombies that were gathering around the caravan increased. Soon, they were going to be under siege. Then finally, the engine started, and the sound of the rumbling machine was music to their ears. The vehicle shook violently again, and it felt like they were first hand experiencing an earthquake. 

  
“Come on, go ahead!” Maki yelled and the black-haired man stepped on the clutch, changing the gear and speeding forward, running over some of the zombies that had gathered in front of the vehicle.

As they sped down the vastly empty road, they could see some zombies running after them. The two males looked at each other and holding their hands up for a high five.

  
“Nice.” The pink-haired man laughed and Mattsun nodded.

  
“At least the gas is full.” The raven commented, leaning back against the seat, keeping his eyes on the road.

  
“There’s a gas station in about 15 kilometres. Maybe we can stock up on supplies.” Maki informed the other, fiddling with his fingers.

  
“Let’s hope the place hasn’t been raided yet.” The raven said, dragging his hand down his face while keeping his eyes glued to the never-ending road.

  
“Since we can’t rely on Google Maps anymore, we have to use a map.” Mattsun explained with a long sigh.

  
“Ahh... What a drag.” Commented Maki, slumping into his seat.

  
“Yeah.” Mattsun agreed, “it’s inside the backpack. Let’s avoid the major roads and use cut outs. They seem safer.”

  
“Wait, I go get it.” Maki said, unfastening his seatbelt to get the map from the backpack. 

  
“We can decide on a route when we reach the gas station.” He said, putting the map into the glove compartment of the vehicle.

  
“Sure.”

  
They drove down the street, and the light of the sun blinded Maki from time to time as they passed by the trees. He looked out of the window and then studied Mattsun’s concentrated and neutral expression. The necklace was dangling from the front mirror of the caravan, telling a story that would not be forgotten. It felt good to have survived death today, despite knowing that others might not see what would come next.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave comments or kudos. Criticism is appreciated.
> 
> I'll try to update more regularly at least once every two weeks.


	4. Chapter 4 - Dangerous Encounter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's chapter 4. From now on, a new chapter will be uploaded every second Sunday, and depending on my motivation, maybe every Sunday.

They had been on the road for some time before they reached their destination: the petrol station. The drive had been surprisingly uneventful, and they had fallen into a comfortable silence.

About 100 metres before the petrol station, Mattsun set the blinker and swiftly yanks the steering wheel around, turning left into the entryway.

“We’re here.” Mattsun said, parking the car next to the petrol pump.

“I don’t mean to criticise your driving skills, but that turn was unnecessarily sharp.” Commented Maki who, at the suddenness of the movement, had been desperately clutching onto his seat belt.

“Wanted to be dramatic.” Issei smiled, patting Maki on the shoulder.

“You mean ‘overdramatic’. Anyway, let’s see if there’s any patrol left.” Snorted Takahiro while slightly shaking his head.

“Wait.” Mattsun said, taking a knife out of his holster and handing it to Maki. “Take this.”

“I am not good with handling knives. Frankly, I don’t want anything pointy and deadly anywhere near me.” Maki pointed out, eyeing the weapon suspiciously.

“It’s for protection. Your dislike aside, you need to learn how to use it. Just in case.” Argued the raven, pushing it into the other’s hands.

“… fine.” The pink-haired man sighed, taking the knife and storing it in his pockets.

Mattsun unbuckled the seatbelt and stood up, making his way to the exit. “Aren’t you coming?” he asked, turning around.

“Yeah. I just wanted to explore the mobile home first. It looks so spacey.” Maki said, opening cupboards while his eyes darted around, inspecting everything.

“You can do that when we have found a place to set up a camp and spend the night.” Issei explained, patiently waiting for the other. He took the gallon that had been in the vehicle with him to hopefully fill it up.

It was important to stock up on supplies, especially fuel, since that would not be easy to find as time passed. They couldn’t use the vehicle forever, and at some point, they probably had to abandon it. First and foremost; however, they had to find food, medicine – prescriptive and non-prescriptive – fuel and fresh clothes because nobody wanted to run around in the same sweaty clothes for weeks. Some kind of comfort should be maintained, regardless of the catastrophe one was facing.

“Look here! There’s a bed above the driver’s cabin. I haven’t noticed that before.” Maki continued, though he did follow Mattsun outside.

Outside, the dark-haired man used the opportunity to properly stretch his muscles because driving for such a long time was tiring. They had to drive slowly to save fuel because they had been driving on an almost empty tank.

The sun stood high, no cloud was in sight, and the absolute lack of wind dipped their surroundings into a tranquillity that seemed deceiving and too good to be true. The hair on Mattsun’s neck started to stand on end, but he didn’t know why.

He took the pump dispenser to distract himself from the strange feeling in his chest and opened the motorhome’s petrol tank, putting the dispenser in and hoping that it worked. Thankfully, it did. He filled the vehicle to the brim and put the dispenser aside, plugging up the petrol tank again. Then, he filled the gallon with petrol, putting it next to the motorhome when he was done. Maki was standing close to him, waiting for him to finish what he was doing. The way he swayed up and down on the balls of his feet looked somewhat adorable. Like a little child waiting to be given their deserved treat.

“Let’s go look if their have a few more gallons in the shop. One won’t be enough.” Mattsun said, heading towards the store; his movements; however, were cautious. He didn’t trust the situation. It was too calm.

He entered the shop first, hand on the handle of his knife, just in case something or someone would jump him. He kept his breathing even, trying to concentrate on the noises that came from his surroundings. The door’s entry bell rang, and Mattsun almost flinched because the bell was uncommonly loud.

His eyes darted around, and he turned his head towards Maki, who was walking behind him, equally mindful. The black-haired man gestured for the other to check the aisle at the front while he would check the aisle in the back. The aisles were empty, most of the shelves still packed full. It seemed like no one had been there and if someone were, then they didn’t raid the place completely, which was nice, Mattsun thought. Still, there was this feeling in his guts that made him hesitant and altered his senses. Maki on the other hand, appeared unbothered, completely unaware of the possible dangers. The raven frowned. Maki was either on high alert or unwary. This trait of his irritated Issei because it could put the light-haired man himself and Mattsun in danger.

He went ahead, checking the counter. No one was there. There were no groaning noises. The shop seemed empty, so he relaxed his tense shoulders a bit.

“Let’s take what we can and get out of here and be cautious.” Mattsun whispered, and the other nodded already having put things into the bag, they had found in the motorhome.

The raven walked behind the counter, looking for a firearm. Most petrol station owners had one because they were prone to being robbed. During his search, he found a first aid kit, and even though they already had one and the motorhome probably had one too, it could never hurt to have more than just one, so he stuffed it into his bag. He also took several lighters and the cigarette packs that had been left. It seemed like people were going more for those things than for the things essential for survival. He also found duck-tape and cable binders among some other stuff. He strapped his backpack behind his back, and he was a bit surprised by how heavy it was. Maki had moved towards the back of the shop, and Mattsun jumped into motion when he heard a crash and a muffled scream.

He jumped over the counter about to run into the direction of which the noise came from, but he stopped when three men plus Maki came out of the storage room. One of them was holding a knife to Takahiro’s throat; a maniac smile plastered across his scared face. It looked like a two-degree burn mark, but Mattsun was not an expert in that field, so he couldn’t be sure.

He had middle-long blonde hair, and he was wearing a biker jacket made of cheap leather, paired with an ordinary jeans and leather boots. His two friends were brunette and wore similar clothes. One of them, the raven noticed had a gun, and he was sure the guy took it from under the counter. He watched them walk towards him and he clenched his jaw tightly, trying not to let the panic show on his face. He had to keep his expression as neutral as possible as to not put Maki in danger.

Takahiro looked visibly frightened and uncomfortable, trying to keep the blade, only centimetres away from his neck, at a distance, without provoking a sudden movement from his assailant.

“Well, well, well. Look at what we have here.” The blonde spat in a mocking tone, tightening his arm around Maki’s neck. “Hand over the keys or I slit his throat.” The man threatened with a dangerous glimmer in his brown eyes.

“Alright but lower the knife first.” Mattsun complied, fishing a key out of his pockets and dangling it in the air. He made eye contact with Maki, tilting his head slightly, in order to give his friend a signal.

He observed the three thugs that were threatening his friend. The blonde one appeared to be the leader of the group, since he was spouting out the orders. He deemed him the most dangerous right now because he had Maki in his grip. The other one who was pointing the gun at him posed another problem. First, because the gun could be loaded or not, and second, he might pull the trigger if he so much as breathed too loudly. Every movement coming from his side could provoke the man to shoot him. The third one could eventually be a problem, for Mattsun didn’t know whether or not he was armed. He could be but given his too open posture and the lack of pockets on his trousers or his jacket, the black-haired male doubted it. Issei hated to engage in active combat, but he didn’t seem to have much of a choice right now. He just had to find a way to get the guy with the gun into the disarm range, which seemed likely because these guys didn’t appear to be the smartest people walking on earth. His odds to overpower all three of them was bad because his time window and reaction time to actually get close to them were way shorter than they would be if they were closer to him. They also were at an advantage, since they had Takahiro as their hostage.

“Hah!” the man laughed, throwing his head back in a dramatic gesture. “I aint do nothing. Saburo, get the key!” he barked, loosening his grip on Maki.

The third man flinched at the harsh tone of his boss, but he walked over to Mattsun, and he had to admit, the guy looked like a push-over.

“Since we’re already here. Let’s at least make some introduct--.” He started, though the blonde guy stopped him from finishing his sentence.

“We are not interested in idle chit-chat. Hand over the key. SABURO!” the blonde thug barked, momentarily loosening his grip and Maki as he was busy pointing the knife at Mattsun to emphasise his point.

It was worth a try, Mattsun thought, but he had to admit that he would have preferred having the one with the gun make his way towards him, but it seemed like he had to change his plan. It all depended on how fast Maki would catch on and if he reacted in time and match Mattsun’s movements. The leader had already put his guard down, so he didn’t hold the knife as close to the light-haired man’s neck anymore, but Maki was still in a position, where his life could be in danger.

“Here.” Mattsun offered as the unarmed guy stepped in front of him, still a few steps away from him.

As the guy, Saburo, came closer, Mattsun opted to throw the piece of metal into the man’s face; the sudden action confusing him for a moment. As the man closed his eyes briefly and flinched away, Mattsun used the open time window to effortlessly immobilise Saburo. The key fell to the floor, but the raven-haired male didn’t take notice of the flat impact it made because of the sudden flow of adrenaline. The gunman reacted to the screech that escaped his companion’s throat, but Issei’s movements had been fast; too fast for the Saburo to react and too sudden for the other man to stop as his finger pulled the trigger slowly.

“Brother!” he yelled, thoughtlessly firing the gun he had aimed at Mattsun, hitting his brother instead of the raven.

He was lucky enough that the fired bullet didn’t go through Saburo’s body, probably having been caught by the bone of his thorax. A small ‘Argh’ escaped the brunette’s mouth and as he realised the bullet hit him. Then his face morphed into an expression of pure shock and horror. Mattsun felt sorry for him because that wasn’t what he thought would happen. He let him sink to the floor; the noises he produced while falling to the ground almost unbearable. The raven ignored the blood that was pooling around the man, painting the tiles a deep horrifying red.

The recoil of the gun had the gunman fly into the shelves behind him, hitting his head in the process. Issei concluded he had never fired a gun before, since he underestimated the recoil and was now laying there on the ground, groaning and holding his head.

Maki used the moment of chaos and pushed the knife away from his neck, intentionally bumping heads with the blonde, whose body went stiff when he saw that Mattsun had let go of the man, who was hit by the bullet, charge at him. He seemed shocked himself for a moment.

The sound of cracking bone echoed through the store, and the man, whose name they didn’t know, screamed out in pain, holding his nose while toppling over.

“AARRGH! My nose! You bloody bitch!” he screamed, kneeling on the ground.

In the hassle, Maki managed to get the gun and run over to Mattsun, who grabbed him by the arm and pulled him with him out the store.

“The keys!” yelled Maki; his voice panicked as he watched Mattsun secure the outside door with duck-tape and cable straps.

“It was the wrong one.” Mattsun stated in a calm tone as he pulled the other with him towards the caravan.

“The wrong one?” muttered the man with pinkish hair.

He looked confused. His expression was solemn, and his eyes turned back to the store, where one of the three men had just been shot. He felt sorry for him, and he wondered whether he would make it or if he would turn into a zombie and become a threat to the other two men. The person having pulled the trigger had to be feeling incredibly guilty right now because of what he had done. If they were brothers by blood didn’t matter because being responsible for the death of a loved-one was something he didn’t even want to think about. He could have used the knife he had in his pocket to defend himself, then maybe things would have gone differently, but at the end of the day, he couldn’t bring himself to use it against another person.

They had initially planned to get some gallons of petrol, but it had to wait, since escaping would be the better option right now. Mattsun pushed a disoriented-looking Maki into the vehicle, and jumped behind the wheel, He started the engine and turned onto the road as fast as he possibly could without losing control of the caravan. He sped down the street, putting his weight onto the accelerator pedal.

He drove like this for several kilometres and only slowed down when he saw a small and barely noticeable trail that led into the woods. He pulled into the side-track that was probably meant for hikers and walkers and hit the brakes after having driven a good way into the woods.

“Are you okay?” Mattsun asked when they come to a halt.

“Yeah.” Maki mumbled, unbuckling his seatbelt, taking a few deep breaths to calm his nerves.

“Are you hurt anywhere?” the ravenette pressed further, watching his friend’s reactions.

“No.” Takahiro whispered through pursed lips, waiting for the adrenaline in his body to subside.

“Are you sure?”

“Mhm.” The pink-haired man nodded, closing his eyes.

“I’ll set a camp. Get some rest. You wanted to explore the mobile home, anyway.” Mattsun suggested, and the other man nodded his head again, slower this time, still feeling slightly distressed.

As Mattsun set up the camp, Maki slapped his hands over his cheeks in an attempt for his mind to work properly again. He didn’t want to admit it, but he had been terrified when the man from the store came up from behind him and pushed a knife to his neck. He had felt completely paralysed. At some point, he felt like he had been a mere witness, watching the scene from afar. Was that what they called dissociating from your body. Only when Mattsun had given him a look of assurance while talking so calmly to the people that threatened him, had he been able to act? At times, Maki felt as if he were a burden to the other; disposable and replaceable. If it hadn’t been for Mattsun, he wouldn’t even be alive anymore.

Maki sat on the cushioned bench that was part of the dining area and next to the small kitchen counter. The inside of the mobile home was roomy, but it didn’t come as that much of surprise, considering the previous owner had a knack for camping and money. Above the driver’s cabin was a double bed, as well as at the end of the truck. It even had a small bathroom, and plenty storing spaces. Maki wasn’t so sure about using the shower because neither did he know how well-maintained the water tank was nor did he know what kind of water tank system it had. The dining table could even be transformed to another bed. They had been lucky to stumble across a miniature home. He stood up and as he walked to the exit, his stomach started grumbling loudly. He didn’t realise how hungry he was, and his belly was already hurting from hunger pains. He went outside and watched as Mattsun came back from the woods, carrying woods, twigs and dry leaves to make a campfire.

“I would have helped you collect firewood.” Maki stated, giving the other male a hand.

“You seemed upset, so I wanted you to get some rest.” Reasoned Issei, and Maki didn’t know what to respond to this because Mattsun was right. He had been quite upset after what had happened.

As Mattsun set up the campfire, Maki went inside to get some canned food they had got from the store, a water bottle and a small pot.

“God, I am starving.” The raven-haired man exclaimed when he saw Maki put the things on the sandy ground.

“I am starving too. I am getting sick of candy bars.” Groaned the light-haired man, and the raven huffed out a small laugh.

As Maki cooked the contents of the can and a pack of instant ramen, Mattsun put up an alarms system, in case someone or something approached the motor home while they were sleeping. The sun had already begun to set, and Issei guessed it was approximately between 8 and 9 o’clock, taking into consideration that it was mid-June. It had been quite a long day.

When they were done eating, they stepped inside the vehicle that they would call their home for the next few days, maybe weeks, depending on how things would go.

It was dark outside, and they were laying on the bed that was above the driver’s cabin, having decided to share a bed because they only had one thin blanket. Maki had his back turned towards him, seemingly asleep.

Mattsun knew it would be wise to get some good night’s rest, but he was still wide-awake, despite his body telling him otherwise. The events of this day, replayed themselves in his head repeatedly, haunting him because he had been so scared to lose Maki. His sympathy for the guy who supposedly shot and killed his own brother kept within its limits because they shouldn’t have attacked them in the first place, and they shouldn’t have pointed a gun at the living.

“Are you awake?” he heard Maki asking in a small whisper beside him, and Mattsun made a sound of confirmation.

“I have been really scared back then, haven’t you?” he asked; his voice small.

“I have been scared, too.” Mattsun admitted without hesitation.

“You didn’t look scared.” Maki responded, envying the inner calmness the other seemed to posses, even in situations such as the one in the shop. 

“I was, though. I was scared that they would hurt you or worse that I would lose you. I hate losing people I care about. I am bad at dealing with losses.” Mattsun whispered back, and it was true: he couldn’t deal with death because it meant he would never them again.

He once had a cat, named Niri, that he had nurtured and taken care of ever since she had been a small kitten. When she died, he was devasted, and even though people told him it was just a pet cat, it didn’t feel like it was because she had meant so much more to him, despite only having been a pet cat. He couldn’t even imagine the pain he would feel when he were to lose Maki. They hadn’t known each other long, but they got along. Besides, Mattsun had got used to Maki’s presence to the extent that he couldn’t imagine him not being there anymore, and frankly, he didn’t want to.

“I hate losing the people I care about too.” Maki muttered back, turning around to face the other man.

“I really can’t lose you.” Mattsun mumbled, pulling Maki into a tight hug. “I just can’t.” he continued, tightening his grip around his friend. He had just become too attached to him.

“I don’t want to lose you either. Let’s look out for each other.” Maki whispered back, returning the embrace, even though he had stiffened at first because of the suddenness.

“I won’t let anything happen to you.” The raven-haired man said, closing his eyes and breathing out deeply, and Maki nodded in agreement, burying his face into the other’s shoulder, looking for comfort. The day had truly worn him out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some sort of feedback would be nice o(^_^)o Please leave a comment or kudos! I am always open to critique, so speak your mind. <3 Also, feel free to point out grammar errors or any stylistic coherence issues in the text.
> 
> Next update can be expected on Sunday the 7th of June.


	5. Follow the Rules

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 5 is up one day earlier. Enjoy! :*

They had been walking through the woods for at least two hours now, without taking a break once, and right after walking through the sewer system. The smell had been horrible, and even though Tooru had tried to breathe through his mouth, he couldn’t control the involuntary retching, the convulsion of the muscle in his throat. He had been so glad that they didn’t have to Kneipp walk through the entire disgusting wastewater of the cities nearby, since there was a path. Still, the moment he stepped out of the sewer he had thrown up into the bush that was closest to him. He felt like his clothes had absorbed the terrible stench. Oikawa desperately needed a thorough shower.

“Can we take a break?” the freckled boy asked, and Tooru was relieved that it hadn’t been him who had to ask that question first.

“I am tired too.” The blonde girl muttered, barely audible.

Hajime seemed to be deep in thought, contemplating about whether they should take a short break or keep walking. The raven-haired man was used to trekking several kilometres by foot at once, and so was Kiyoko. The rest on the other hand wasn’t, which was clear because they had got slower for a while now. He regarded the boy he had been carrying ever since they went down the sewer and sighed.

“It’s probably for the best to take a break.” Kiyoko suggested, and Iwaizumi turned his head around to get an overview of the group.

Tooru was already lacking behind and he looked equally exhausted as the two teenagers. The soldier sighed once more, stopping in his tracks, and causing the rest of the group to do the same.

“Let’s take a quick break then.” He said, putting the boy down and unstrapping his backpack.

They had stopped at a small open clearing that would have been perfect for setting up a tent to enjoy a camping trip. However, this was no funny and cheerful camping trip they could enjoy, this could be them on display for an attack; them served on a silver platter.

“But not for too long. We still need to find a safe place to spend the night.” Hajime added, looking around cautiously. They were in unknown territory, after all. Anything could happen.

The birds were chirping, and a gentle breeze was blowing through the woods, creating a picture of serenity as the rustling of the leaves and the various sounds of cicadas, grasshoppers and the humming and buzzing of the bumblebees and honeybees completed it. The soldier wasn’t even sure whether the rustling was caused by the wind and animals or if it was the dead, roaming around the woods, stepping onto twigs while crawling through the bushes. No matter how peaceful something looked, it could change immediately if they weren’t careful.

They were exposed and vulnerable to a potential threat; a threat that despite being dead wasn’t so dead after all. Hajime wasn’t sure how much the rest knew, though. All he knew was that the world they had lived in before was no more. Even in the military, they had trouble containing the disease, still in the dark about the cause. The evacuation was a farce because they didn’t even have the capacity to house so many people at once, and they didn’t have enough men and women in their ranks to control a massive crowd that demanded answers; answers they still didn’t have. The reason Kiyoko and Iwaizumi knew it was time to leave was when they heard that the fourth military evacuation camp was overrun.

“Ah, I am spent!” Tooru sighed, putting his backpack down and practically throwing himself on it. He couldn’t move a muscle anymore, and his knee was causing him problems. He was determined to ignore the pain, though. He had been ignoring and getting used to the pain for years now.

“Don’t get too comfortable.” Hajime spoke, eying the brunette, but Oikawa didn’t react.

“I can’t walk anymore.” Hitoka whined, rubbing her sore legs.

“I’ve never walked this far for so long. Not ever.” Tadashi informed, throwing his head behind to look up the clear blue sky.

Tooru was rummaging through his bag, trying to find something to fill his stomach with because he felt almost famished. He had barely eaten the last few days because the rations sizes weren’t big, and the food had been mediocre at best.

As he was unwrapping the high-calorie chocolate bar, the boy – with whom he had shared a room with – sat down beside him; too close for the brunette’s comfort. That child was creeping him out because he didn’t talk and had taken a liking to him he hadn’t asked for. Oikawa didn’t even like children in the first place, and now this one was clinging onto him like bubble gum to the sole of a shoe. The boy looked up at him, his blue eyes piercing and innocent. Oikawa wondered whether his mutism was something he was born with and that was caused by physical damage or if a traumatising experience was the culprit.

Now he felt bad for calling him creepy because if the boy had lost his family to the dead, then Tooru could relate because he had lost his family too. It appeared to be a likely scenario, since the child had been alone, even though he was still so young.

“Take it.” Oikawa offered, and the boy hesitantly took the candy bar; his eyes looking grateful. It was probably not the best idea to do this because it gave the child the impression that, from now on, the brunette would take care of him, which he would not. Definitely not. No way in hell.

“Do you know his name?” the freckled teen asked, and Tooru frowned, not in the mood for idle chitchat.

“No.” he simply stated, refraining from saying something sarcastic for once, knowing that Hajime would scold him for being rude. Speaking of Iwa-chan. Oikawa’s eyes fell onto the broad shoulders of the man in question, wondering what he was thinking right now. He seemed tense as his eyes scanning the area non-stop.

The group had formed a small circle as they rested with Iwaizumi being the only one to keep an eye on their surroundings. As they recharged their energy, the black-haired woman started a friendly conversation with the two teenagers; an attempt to ease their anxiety and to get to know them better.

“What’s your story?” Kiyoko asked the blonde girl, curious about what she had been through so far. They initially hadn’t planned on taking the two teenagers with them, but they had overheard them talking and letting them join them was the best course of action she and Hajime could have taken.

The blonde girl looked at Kiyoko, blushing as she made eye contact with the beautiful ravenette who was giving the blonde’s hand a reassuring squeeze. Then, her eyes suddenly started brimming with tears. Oikawa didn’t want to listen to another sob story, having had his fair share of it already ever since he entered the camp, meeting and sharing a room with people that talked way too much, too loud and too often.

“We…” she paused for a moment, but the raven-haired woman waited patiently for her to continue. “We were at school when it happened.”

“But shouldn’t have all schools been closed?” The brunette interrupted; his eyebrow shooting up at that information.

“Not every school took the same measures.” Freckles answered; Oikawa had already forgotten his name.

“Suddenly students were screaming. At first it was only one person, but then almost everyone was screaming.” She continued, biting harshly down on her bottom lip. “The teachers tried to calm us down and securely lead us to the emergency exits, but when we saw that a student from the class next to ours attacked our teacher and practically bit off his arm, the structure was gone.” Another momentary pause followed as Hitoka tried to collect herself.

“Students tried to get out of the classrooms at once. Some even tried to jump out the window. Some were pushed out, and others just fell out. Students and teachers had got trampled over. First, they had just been lying there on the ground, motionless, but then, they got up as if nothing had happened and attacked other people, biting them and gnawing and feeding on them.” She told them; eyes wide with horror as she remembered what happened roughly two weeks ago.

“I’ve never seen something like this before. I only remember little of it, and I don’t even know how I ended up on the roof, but the military had rescued us. After that, a rescue troop brought us to that camp.” The teenager finished, desperately trying to hold back the tears.

“It’s okay. You can cry. There’s no shame in crying.” The raven-haired woman whispered; her voice soothing and comforting as she brought her into a hug.

“-am s-sorry.” The girl cried, burring her face into the woman’s chest.

“It’s okay. Everything is going to be alright.” Kiyoko whispered, and Oikawa knew that she only said that to calm her down.

“I don’t want to break your moment, but we should get going. We shouldn’t stay in the same place for too long, especially since Kiyoko and I are probably the only ones who know how to use a knife and a gun properly.” Hajime commented, interrupting the moment of comforting silence.

The group nodded, and Oikawa wanted to feel offended at the comment that he didn’t know how to use a gun or knife, but it was true. He didn’t know how to use a gun because he was a strict gun opposer, and he never thought he would need knife skills. If he had previously known that the world was going to be taken over by the dead and sick, then he would have been more open about learning how to use a knife.

“However,” Iwaizumi started; voice resonating authority, “I want to put up some rules first. Rule number one: Do not under any circumstances split. It is never wise to get separated or separate from the group. No solo moves. Number two: Be aware of your surroundings. Be cautious and careful. Don’t do anything stupid. Use every single one of your senses. Don’t be reckless.” He stated, looking at all of them. “Number three: we’re a group. We move as a group, and we think as a group. There’s no room for selfishness.” He continued, indicating the number of rules with his fingers. “And rule number four: Don’t scream, or at least try not to scream for the entire time you are running away.” Iwaizumi finished, and the rest of the group nodded in understanding.

“Well, th—” Kiyoko started, but loud screams and gunshots interrupted her. It sounded as if they were not too far away from them. The sudden noise startled the boy who had been holding onto Tooru’s hand. He let go of Oikawa’s hand, a small muffled scream leaving his throat as he ran into the woods.

“Hey! WAIT!” The brunette yelled after him. He didn’t think twice about it and ran right after him.

This seemed to have caused a chain reaction as Tadashi and Hitoka – in a moment of panic – sprinted off into different directions too, screaming.

Hajime facepalmed himself, massaging his head to soothe the rising headache. He took a deep breath in, then out; a vein popping out of his forehead because of how pissed he was right now.

“I just told them not to separate, not to scream and not to be reckless and stupid…” Iwaizumi counted; his voice dangerously low, almost seething.

“I’ll try to catch up to Hitoka and Tadashi.” Kiyoko said, pointing into the direction the two of them ran off to. “You go find Tooru.”

“About four kilometres east is a small pond. Let’s meet there. If one of us isn’t making it there by midnight, both of us will head towards the old military base. You know which base I am talking about.” Hajime added, and the raven-haired woman nodded.

“WAIT” Oikawa yelled, trying to keep up with the boy, despite the excruciating pain in his knee.

“Hold on! Stop!” he panted, already having trouble breathing. The twigs and leaves that hit his face weren’t making it easier for him and after a while he lost track of the child.

As he fought his way through the nasty and thick undergrowth, he tumbled into a small clearing, stopping there as he picked the leaves and twigs out of his hair.

“There you are!” Tooru spoke, relief flooding his voice. The dark-haired boy was standing in the middle of the clearing, frozen in place, and the brunette frowned at first until he noticed the reason.

His eyes fell onto the group of zombies that was enjoying a meal that consisted of a now dead and half-eaten hiker. Tooru didn’t know if it was a hiker or not, the only thing that was apparent was that the pile of torn meat used to be a human being. The three zombies were snacking on the mauled body, and the display of the ripped open and crushed ribcage made Oikawa want to puke his guts out. That was way too much gore for his liking. The ground was soaked in blood, painting the grass different shades of blood red; seeping into the soil. He could hear the growling and groaning of the zombies, the breaking of bones and the tearing on skin. The loud eating and smacking noises filled Tooru with horror. As if that picture alone wasn’t bad enough, his sudden appearance and outcry had got the zombies’ attention.

They stared at Tooru and the boy that were standing in front of them, and at first Oikawa had hoped that they were too immersed in their meal to go after them, but he was dead wrong. All of them at once, let go of the body parts of the corpse, running towards the brunette and the boy.

“EEEEEHHHHHW!” Oikawa squeaked out, lifting the boy up and running into the direction he had just come from.

His knee was hurting, and he barely had any stamina left. By now, he mostly ran on adrenaline. Leaves, twigs and insects were hitting him in the face, blinding his vision as he started to tearing up because of the panic that was rising inside him. All he could concentrate on was the sound of his own footsteps on the uneven and rough ground.

The panic only got worse when he heard the zombies’ movements through the bushes and their growling close in on him. He could practically feel them breath down his neck, even though he knew it was the boy’s ragged and panicked breathing. His nails painfully dug into Oikawa’s shoulders, and his muscles were getting tired. He had trouble carrying the child’s weight, and his heartbeat was speeding up. He could hear his blood pump through his body and feel his lungs inflate and deflate erratically as they were filled with the fresh air of the woods. He couldn’t breathe. His tears were stinging his eyes, and he couldn’t ease his own panic nor the boy’s.

Still, he was moving forwards, desperately trying not to look behind him as manoeuvred through the woods. The bumpy ground made it difficult though. He turned his head around and saw that all three zombies were still on his tails, undisturbed and undeterred by the uneven terrain.

“AHHH!!! He screamed again when he saw their rotting skin and their glassy dead eyes. At that moment, he stumbled over a root that was raking out of the ground.

“Ufff!” he and the boy yelled, and Tooru didn’t even have enough energy left to turn his head around.

He buried his head into the moist, dirty and of dead-leaves-consisting ground, ignoring the desperate attempts of the boy to get him to stand up. He just couldn’t move anymore. There was no adrenaline left to fuel his body anymore.

He could feel the pain in his bones, and Oikawa told himself that all he had to do now was braze himself for what was about to happen. Tears were streaming down his face, but he couldn’t scream. He was sobbing silently, biting down onto his lip so hard that it drew blood; He could taste the metal in his mouth. One of his hands was digging into the ground, fingernails scratching on the surface through the dead leaves and dirt.

The birds’ singing, the bumblebees’ buzzing, and the cicadas’ chirping felt comforting right now because if Tooru concentrated enough on that, he could drown out the growling of the zombies that were going to tear his body apart. But before they would do that, they would bite into his flesh, tear the skin of the bone and cause him a kind of pain, he couldn’t bring himself to imagine. The brunette was scared. So scared that the only thing he did was to cover his ears and hope that he it would end quickly. He waited for the child to stop crying; waited for him to run away, not clasp his wrist tight and firm, so that Tooru could feel the tenderness of his skin on his and the warmth radiating from it. Oikawa just waited for it to be over and for the groaning and loud moaning to stop.

It did suddenly stop, but not how he had thought it would. There was no pain, no grabby hands tearing on his body and no teeth penetrating his skin. Just like that, one by one, was their aggravating moaning, groaning and growling drowned out by three very sharp and loud pops, followed by three muffled thuds and accompanied by a voice that he knew all too well.

“What the actual fuck!” Iwaizumi yelled angrily, yet relieved, but Tooru didn’t dare look up.

Iwaizumi picked him up instead, bringing him into a bone-crushing embrace. “Are you okay? Are you stupid? God, what the fuck! Don’t just lie there and give up!” he barked, cradling the brunette in his arms.

Oikawa’s arms wrapped around the other man’s shoulders, clutching and clinging onto them tightly, nails digging into the fabric of Iwaizumi’s uniform.

“Iwa-chan.” The brunette sobbed into the raven-haired man’s shoulder as the comforting smell of Hajime’s skin clouded his senses.

“I am here. It’s okay.” He whispered, in an unnaturally soothing manner.

“Hajime. –am s-so so-sorry.” Tooru mumbled, rubbing his face into the other. He was so glad.

“I am so fucking angry right now, but I won’t yell at you because you scared me. I am glad you’re alright.” Hajime said.

“What’s the point of me making rules when all of you break all of them almost at once.” he muttered; his voice reprimanding. “Never do this again.”

“I am sorry.” Oikawa breathed out after a while, pushing away from the other male to look him in the eye.

Iwaizumi’s face showed anger, concern and relief, and his scowl wasn’t as prominent as it usually was. Tooru’s eyes were buffy and swollen, and he had a runny nose.

“Let’s get going.” Iwaizumi told them, helping Oikawa get up, supporting him.

“Yeah.” The brunette nodded, not arguing for once. He took the child’s hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze.

Matsukawa and Hanamaki were on the road again, not staying in one place for long. It had been a week now, and they had already changed places at least 15 times during their travel. Both men still hadn’t decided on a clear destination because they couldn’t think of a place that could be considered safe now. Three days ago, there had been one last radio show, giving a briefing about the current situation that turned out to be far worse than anyone could have expected. During the course of only a few days, entire cities had fallen, and the dead seemed to have completely seized the regions, moving in herds and destroying everything and anything in their wake. At the end of the radio show, the connection of the host broke off after several panicked cries and muffled screams rattled through the speakers. Mattsun and Maki hadn’t talked for a while after that, not knowing how to take the news. They had already thought something along those lines, but having a new reality slapping you in the face so straight-forwardly and without sending at least one warning letter first was devasting. They couldn’t keep wrecking their minds about it, though. They just had to try to stay alive.

“I see something that you don’t see, and that’s green and large.” Mattsun sing-sang, keeping his eyes on the road.

“Green and large? Can’t you be more creative?” Maki questioned with a raised eyebrow, having an inkling as what the raven-haired man was referring too. Again.

“Green and large could be anything.” Issei laughed.

“I swear if it’s another tree, I am not ever going to play that game with you again.” Takahiro grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest.

“It’s not a tree.” Assured the black-haired male, smiling at his friend who narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

“It’s the grass on the fields.” The light-haired man stated, rolling his eyes.

“Maybe green and large was a bad idea.” Admitted Mattsun, and the other man sighed, shaking his head slightly. “Don’t give me that look. It’s not like we come across anything else.” The raven defended himself, pinching Maki’s cheek.

“It’s my turn.” Said Takahiro, swatting the other’s hand away. “I see something that you can’t see and that’s PEOPLE!!!” Maki suddenly squeaked out; voice high-pitched and panicked.

“What’s that supposed to mean.” Issei asked confused.

“PEOPLE! ON THE ROAD! WATCH OUT!” Maki screamed, pointing on the road, already bracing himself for a possible crash.

“OH SHIT!!!” Mattsun yelled, pushing his foot onto the breaks with so much force, he could feel the pressure in his leg. The tires squeaked, and the raven held onto the wheel; fingers clutched around it tightly, keeping it straight. The vehicle came to an abrupt and curt halt; the impact of the sudden change in velocity, throwing them forward harshly, though their seat belts kept them securely in place. Mattsun opened his eyes and the feeling of dread that spread through his body left a sour and bitter taste in his mouth. It felt suffocating and surreal, and he intently hoped that he did not just run over people.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment and kudos. I'd love to get some feedback.
> 
> Next update: 14.07.


	6. Introductions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a while since I updated, but here's chapter #6. I hope you'll enjoy this chapter! 🤗🎈

The silence lingered strongly in the air, and only their hard breathing filled the tense and quite void surrounding them. The seatbelt cushioned the abrupt stop, but the shock ran deep; Mattsun was the first to speak up.

“I hope I did not just run someone over.”

Maki stared at him for a moment before answering: “I don’t know. It didn’t feel like you had.”

Then Matsukawa unbuckled his seatbelt and climbed out of the driver’s seat, stepping outside. It was deadly quiet, so quiet that you could hear a pin drop onto the floor because not even the bird’s annoying chirping echoed through the woods.

Mattsun looked around, scanning the area from left to right like you would if you were taking a panorama picture. His heart was frankly beating in his chest, and at times, it felt like his heart was about to jump out of his rip cage. He stepped in front of the van to look if he had hit someone or something, but he couldn’t see anything. There was no blood, no scattered belongings and most importantly no corpse. Issei frowned and turned around towards Maki who had followed him outside; a look of uncertainty adorning his features.

“I wasn’t imagining things.” The light-haired man said before Mattsun could even utter a word.

“I didn’t even say anything.” Answered the black-haired man, shrugging his shoulders with raised arms to show that he didn’t really know what the other was talking about.

“You were thinking it.” Maki said, rolling his eyes.

“You caught me there.” Admitted the dark-haired man, “but I am relieved, actually. For a moment I thought I hit someone.”

Maki leaned down, his bare knees now scrapping over the hot asphalt. He looked beneath the vehicle, finding nothing. It was a relief, but he was sure that he saw people stepping onto the road. It wasn’t just his imagination. People were standing on the road. Or was his mind already playing tricks on him? Was the heat getting to him?

Suddenly, there was rustling in the bushes, and all of his senses kicked in at once. Both of them jumped up and Mattsun stepped protectively in front of him, his knife drawn, and Maki couldn’t see past the taller male’s frame.

“Who’s there?” Issei asked cautiously, yielding Maki who tried to peek over the other’s shoulder.

“Were unarmed.” A deep and rough voice echoed from the bushes, though they didn’t show themselves just yet.

“Well, we can at least say it’s not a zombie.” Hanamaki commented, and Mattsun received a playful jab to the side.

“You don’t say. How would you come to that conclusion; I wonder.” Issei said; his tone practically drenched in sarcasm as he returned the jab.

“It’s called intuition.” Maki nodded his head, crossing his arms over his chest, jumping onto the sarcasm train. The other only shook his head at his smaller friend.

A man stepped out of the woods, carrying another person on his back while a child was clasping onto his pants. He wore military attire that had brownish blotches discolouring the uniform, and just form looking at the stains, it was obvious that they weren’t part of the pattern. The man’s hair stuck to his face due to sweating, and the person on his back didn’t seem to be in good shape. The boy desperately clinging onto him looked scared as he was hiding behind the guy, and he wasn’t in any better shape either with his dirty clothes and mud-covered face. 

Mattsun observed them, contemplating whether they could be a viable threat, dismissing the thought immediately because the black-haired man looked fatigued, and so did the other two. Besides, one of their group members was unconscious, so they didn’t exactly scream danger. He put them into the friendly people category. Still, first impression could be deceiving, so he remained on alert.

“Could you give us a ride?” the man asked tiredly; his voice raspy from dehydration.

His posture was open, and he seemed everything, but hostile, considering the neutral tone in his voice. Mattsun opened his mouth, but Maki beat him to it, answering without a second thought.

“Of course. Is he hurt?” Maki said, pointing at the guy the other man was carrying. Mattsun forgot that helping others came natural to Takahiro.

“He’s just tired.”

“Hold on.” Mattsun spoke up, taking Maki by the arm “let’s have a chat first.” The raven-haired man told his friend, dragging him a respectful distance away from the strangers they had just encountered.

“Don’t be too trusting. He could be dangerous, like serial-killer dangerous.” Issei whispered to Maki who listened interestingly what the other had to say.

“He doesn’t look like one, though. He’s got a child with him. They need help.” He reasoned, but Mattsun just shook his head.

“I bet Ted Bundy’s victims thought the same thing. They probably thought the same.” The raven-haired man sighed before adding: “And the boy could be a bait.” He wasn’t really serious about it. He just wanted Maki to be a little more aware.

“I can hear you just fine, you know.” The stranger commented nonchalantly; his voice flat and monotone.

“We’ll give you a ride as long as you don’t slaughter us in our sleep. If you do, my ghost is gonna haunt you, your parents, your future children, and the future children of every future children of the children to come.” Declared Mattsun, and the man in front of him rolled his eyes exaggeratingly, not even hiding his annoyance.

“Of course not. We’re not savages.”

“Those arms sure look savage, though.” Maki remarked, and Mattsun choked back a laugh.

“What?” the stranger asked, raising his eyebrow at the comment.

“What?” Maki repeated, cocking his head to the side.

“Whatever. I can assure you that we aren’t dangerous. Besides, there’s a hoard of zombies coming this way, so it would be best to get out of here.”

The moment the man mentioned a hoard of zombies moving towards them, they could hear the undead growling and hissing if they listened closely, and the noises got louder and louder by the second.

“Why you chose to share that information so late is beyond me. Let’s get out of here.” Mattsun said, altered when the first zombie stepped out of the woods, followed by another one.

“Get moving!” Maki alarmed, and they rapidly jumped into the van, settling in as quickly as possible and speeding down the road to escape the incoming herd that one by one entered the road.

“Do you happen to know how big the hoard is?” Mattsun asked, directing his question at the man, whose name he still didn’t know.

“No.” answered the dark-haired stranger curtly.

“Not a man of many words, I see.” Issei remarked; eyes fixed on the road. Maybe he shouldn’t have asked a yes-or-no question to begin with.

“I think he is the muscles and his friend’s the brain.” Maki laughed, swatting the man on the back in a friendly manner, which caused the man to groan.

“God, why do I have to end up with a bunch of idiots.” Grumbled the black-haired soldier with a sigh.

“What’s your name by the way.” Asked Hanamaki, ignoring the fact that the guy had just called him and Issei a bunch of idiots. “I am Takahiro Hanamaki, but Maki is just fine. And that’s Mattsun.” He pointed at Matsukawa.

“Jo.” Issei said, showing a piece sign.

“Hajime Iwaizumi. And the guy sleeping over there is Toru Oikawa.”

“What’s the name of your child?” Maki asked pointing at the boy who was sitting next the still sleeping brunette.

“Our child?” Iwaizumi asked confused and then it clicked. “We’re not a couple. We’re childhood friends.”

“Whoops, my bad.” Maki laughed sheepishly, feeling a bit embarrassed about jumping to conclusions just because he thought they’d look cute as a couple.

“The kid doesn’t talk. He had been following Toru around. We don’t know his name.” Hajime explained. He didn’t know how he should feel about Maki’s misconception. He wasn’t angry, but it irked him a little, nonetheless.

“You would have made a cute couple. With those guns you call biceps you’d be brawn and your childhood friend would be the brains, given that he is intelligent. Is he smart?” asked Mattsun, internally hoping that the brunette would be smart, so the things he had just said would play out.

“He is, but can you stop being so irritating? What’s with the comments about my arms?!” sighed Iwaizumi, pinching the bridge of his nose. He was considering flinging himself out of the window.

“It’s just too easy to make fun of you.” Issei laughed. “So, where to? We didn’t really have a set destination, but you seem like you have one.”

“There’s an old and abandoned military station several miles north. It’s a three-hour drive. We’re supposed to be meeting the rest of our group there.” Hajime said, finally getting seated behind the driver.

“I enlisted in the military once.” Issei mentioned, thinking back to when he was sixteen and dropped out of high school, enlisting because he had nothing better to do at the time.

“Really. You?” Iwaizumi raised his eyebrows, looking at him with a doubtful expression on his face.

“Your personality explains the use of the past tense, Mattsun.” Maki, now sitting next to Oikawa and the little boy, called out with a snicker.

“Well, I have to admit I wasn’t particularly well liked there.” The black-haired male laughed, remembering all the times the sergeant yelled at him for being late, rude, tardy or for just being there, breathing the same air as he was.

“How shocking.” Commented Iwaizumi with a flat face. He, himself, had encountered some of these ‘Mattsuns’ during his time in training. They were too pacifistic, too eccentric and just not made for military service.

“I know. They just couldn’t take a joke.” Sighed Issei, pretending to wipe a fake tear away.

**00000**

Toru slowly regained consciousness, and he heard the crooning of a car engine, he could feel an occasional up and down movement, and the smell of tea was lingering in the air.

He laid on something fluffy and soft, and he could feel something warm press into his chest. His eyes opened, and he was confused for a moment, taking in his new and unknown surroundings. An unfamiliar face, the face of a smiling guy with short, light-brown – almost pinkish – hair then greeted Toru. The brunette jumped away, now fully awake.

“Waah!” yelled Oikawa, backing away at how close the other man was to his face. His pulse accelerated, and he felt on edge, wondering where he was, why he was there, and where Hajime and the little kid were.

“He woke up.” The man said, obviously not addressing him.

“Fucking finally.” Toru heard Iwa-chan grumble, and the brunette felt a wave of relief wash away the anxiety that had built up inside of him.

“How are you feeling?” the guy who had greeted him, asked.

“I am fine, I guess.” Oikawa rasped out; his throat hurting from dehydration. “Where am I, and who are you?”

The brunette’s eyes scanned the van. It looked quite cosy, and he was lying on a bed, the boy right next to him, which explained why it felt so warm. He rubbed his tired eyes, looking over to Hajime, who was seemingly giving directions.

“I am Maki. Mattsun and I found picked you up on the road, so now we’re a part of your group.” Maki said, handing Toru a bottle of water, which the brunette gratefully took and gulped down in one go.

Oikawa thought back to what had happened; the zombies that were about to eat him for dinner, and him coming to terms with eventually dying a gruesome death. He slapped his hands over his face, trying to stop the vivid images from entering and occupying his mind. He didn’t want to think about the fear he had felt; didn’t want to think about the used-to-be humans’ hungry teeth, their hands reaching for him or their glassy dead eyes and their blemished skin. He wanted to forget the image of the mauled person the zombies had been feeding on, but it had burned itself into his mind.

His body was aching all over, and he generally felt like shit, though he preferred feeling like shit over dying or turning into one of those mindless human-eating monsters.

“We’re going to take a short break at a lake nearby. The two of you, and the kid need a bath and a change of clothes. Besides, we need a lunch break.” Maki told Oikawa, motioning back and forth towards Iwa-chan, Toru and the boy who entered dream land.

They didn’t plan on staying at the lake for long, since moving from place to place was safer than staying at the same spot for too long. The four men got along well with each other, and even though Iwaizumi seemed annoyed at the newcomers almost the entire ride, and every time they opened their mouths, he enjoyed their somewhat silly banters because no one should forget what careless joy felt like, even in times like these.

Iwaizumi had made a campfire, despite first having reservations about it, since the smoke cloud the fire produced could be seen from a far. However, Maki wanted to cook without using the stove in the van because it was too cramped to move around properly.

The flames flickered and cracked, and the embers of the campfires flew into the air, dissipating within the smoke. They placed a pot on the self-made fixture, and everyone was sitting in a circle around the campfire, waiting for the food. Everything looked like they were on a camping trip; the nature was peaceful, and the lake looked beautiful as its water shimmered under the setting sun, dipping it in a breath-taking hue of different colours. Everything could be normal, but it wasn’t. The image was deceiving. Despite everything looking peaceful, the current world had turned into a nightmare with death potentially lurking everywhere, perfectly capable of ruining the picture at any time.

“What are you cooking, Maki?” Mattsun asked curiously, putting his head onto the smaller ones to observe the food-making process.

“Stew.” Maki continued stirring. He found soup base in the kitchen counter of the van and put mushrooms they collected in the woods, and two packages of Issei’s instant noodles in it. He also added hazelnut leaves because they are edible and rich in nutrients.

“It’s done. Get the bowls.” and eventually Issei lifted his head from his shoulder.

They ate in silence, and everyone seemed to be lost in their own thoughts. It was sad that they couldn’t stay here for long.

“How did you meet?” Toru asked, curious about his new friend’s relationship. They looked like they were close.

“Huh?” Mattsun looked up; eyes meeting Oikawa’s.

“Maybe two or three weeks ago. I am not really sure. We’ve been together ever since they announced evacuations. Mattsun saved my ass.” Maki stated after he had swallowed his food.

“So, you didn’t get evacuated?” Hajime piqued in and the two shook their heads.

“Nope, I got out of the city somehow and ended up meeting Maki in his hometown. We look out for each other now. Why? Where you?” Mattsun asked, but he figured his question was already answered, since Iwaizumi was probably part of the evacuation team, given that he was a specially trained soldier – at least the uniform indicated so.

“We were in one of the camps that the military set up.” Toru said.

“So, why’d you leave? Was the camp run over by zombies?” Maki asked with wide eyes.

“We left because it’s probably not the best idea to have so many people crowded in one spot. We don’t know whether the camp is still there.” Iwaizumi stated, absentmindedly drawing lines and circles into the sand with a piece of wood. “Thanks for the clothes, by the way.”

“You’re welcome.” Maki smiled, and then he stood up, collecting the dishes and throwing in a bucket they had previously filled with water.

“Should we get going then? The sun is going to set.” Toru stated, and the rest looked at the sun, noticing how dark it has become.

“We probably should. We might reach the base within the next hour before the sun has set.” Iwaizumi noted.

“You’re driving then.” Mattsun said, tossing Iwaizumi the car keys.

**00000**

Akaashi didn’t know what to make of the situation. On the day of their ‘escape’, Kuro had driven the tank of the jeep empty, and he, Kuro and Bokuto and several other people that rode with them had to leave the vehicle behind and go by foot. This happened about two weeks ago, and they were still wandering about after having joined another group of survivors. What irked Akaashi was that their self-proclaimed leader didn’t really have a plan, and the fact that they had already run out of supplies didn’t lift the mood within the group at all.

Two days ago, they had set up a temporary camp, and they were given the task to go look for supplies. To say that Akaashi was fed up with the situation was an understatement. He’d rather not be in the middle of nowhere with their necessities continuing to diminish each day.

“I need a shower.” Akaashi exclaimed, leaning back against Bokuto’s chest.

Bokuto sniffed the raven-haired man’s hair and then nodded in agreement: “You do.”

Akaashi narrowed his eyes at his fiancée, not in the mood for the other’s stupid jokes. “Not funny, Kou. Not funny.”

“Keiji, what date do we have today? You’ve been keeping track on it, haven’t you?” asked after some time, hoping that engaging in simple conversation would lift Akaashi’s sour mood.

“It’s June the 20th.” Akaashi answered, and then he sighed loudly when his belly rumbled loudly.

“Do you want my share?” asked Bokuto, but the shorter man shook his head.

“Can we go for a walk? I feel like we’re wasting our time just sitting around. Not like wandering around wouldn’t be a waste, but I need to do something.” Akaashi said, looking up from his spot, waiting for an answer.

“Then let’s g—.” A loud and booming voice interrupted the silver-haired man, and his and Akaashi’s heads instantly turned into the direction of which the voice was coming from.

“Everyone listen up! Two of our survey troops have returned.” The ‘leader’, Hanzo Sasaki, who went by the ridiculous name ‘Scotty’ announced.

Akaashi rolled his eyes. A two days ago, Hanzo had sent his ‘thugs’ – Akaashi couldn’t put it any other way – out to gather supplies, and now they were back.

The first team came back with supplies, although Keiji suspected that ‘Scotty’ wouldn’t split the rations up in a fair way.

What surprised him; however, was only seeing of person of the second team return and that in a pretty roughed-up condition.

“What’s happened?” a concerned female voice asked as she rushed to aid the two people.

The blonde man, going by the name ‘Trojan’, swatted her hand away, pushing his girlfriend aside roughly. “Some people attacked us. Saburo and Shin are dead. They killed them. I barely escaped, but I still got some things.”

“WHAT! Who?” Hanzo asked; aggression lacing his voice.

“I don’t know. One of them broke my nose. They attacked out of nowhere.”

And then Trojan started telling his story. Akaashi knew the blonde wasn’t being truthful. The raven had encountered a lot of liars, so he recognised one if he saw one. He knew the moment Trojan insisted on not having wanted to get into a fight, even though he was prone to getting into fights and beating up people for no reason at all. As the guy continued his story, Akaashi jabbed Bokuto into the side to get his attention.

“Let’s go for a walk.” Keiji whispered, tugging on Koutaro’s shirt.

Bokuto nodded, and they got up discreetly, trying not to draw any attention on them.

“We should inform Kuro we’re going for a walk.” The silver-haired man whispered, and Akaashi pursed his lips. Kuro would definitely want to tag along, but Keiji wanted to be alone with Bokuto.

And Koutaro didn’t even wait for his answer, instead he weaved his way through the camp, stopping in front of Kuro’s tent and immerging with Kuro and Yaku, whom they had been in the jeep with.

They stopped at a small stream, and Akaashi seized the moment to wash up a little. He could feel his clothes sticking to him, and he desperately wanted to change his clothes and get clean. He had been wearing the same things for two weeks straight now, and he had felt disgusted after two days of not changing or being able to shower. He couldn’t wait any longer. He wanted to change locations.

“I haven’t seen any zombies lately. It’s freaking me out.” Yaku said, leaning down to also wash his face.

Akaashi hummed in agreement. The soft splashing of the stream reminded him of how his showerhead sounded, but unfortunately the only thing he could do right now was washing his hair and clean his face.

The suffocating heat was also a factor that caused him a lot of discomfort, but at least the woods provided shelter from the sun.

“It’s indeed concerning, especially because the camp isn’t small and they’re definitely not quite.”

“I thought you were more concerned about your hygiene than that.” Kuro laughed, and Akaashi closed his eyes briefly to calm down.

“At least I worry about my hygiene, unlike other people who don’t seem bothered at all.” He countered, looking at both Kuro and Bokuto.

“Why me?” asked Bokuto confused, pointing a finger at himself, but Akaashi ignored him.

“Do you also think it’s too quiet here? Maybe we should seek shelter somewhere else. My parents have a small cottage. We could go there.” Yaku suggested, throwing a flat stone onto the water, trying to make it flip. It didn’t. It just sank flat to the ground.

“I am fine with anything as long as it’s not here.” Akaashi answered, and Kuro and Bokuto nodded along. They just had to get out of here unnoticed because he wasn’t keen on being on Trojan’s ‘blacklist’. The guy was crazy. Akaashi was convinced that not only zombie blood was staining the blonde’s hands.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to leave comments and kudos! 😊🤍
> 
> The chapter is a bit short, but I'll try to update more frequentely.


	7. The World Is Too Small

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It took me some time to write this, but I finally finished after editing it over and over again. Enjoy!😊

At first, Maki thought that a 3-hour drive wasn’t as long as it sounded, but it turned out that a 3-hour drive could actually feel like half a day. It was hard for him to keep his eyes open, and like a little kid, he’d already asked Iwaizumi three times when they would arrive. Matsun had made fun of him for that - of course - but he’d spent so much time in the van, it felt suffocating seeing nothing but four walls and hearing nothing but the engine howling. He definitely needed fresh air because the small break they had wasn’t nearly enough. 

Luckily for him, he fell asleep, only waking up when the vehicle abruptly came to a halt, startling him out of his trance-like slumber.

“What’s going on?” Maki asked, blinking. He leaned forward and pushed the curtains away to get an idea of where they were. They stopped on a hill; branches and logs blocking the uneven, earthy path. 

“We need to get the debris out of the way.” Iwaizumi said, turning the keys around to turn off the engine of the van.

“One of us should be on the lookout.” Matsun mentioned, though by one of us he meant either Toru or Maki.

“Right. We can’t take risks.” Hajime agreed, and everyone turned their head towards Oikawa.

“Why’s everyone looking at me? I am very capable of moving some wood.” pouted the brunette, but he had to admit that it was probably best for him to not move around too much, since he was still in no condition to do anything that consisted of hard labour. 

“Just do it.” Iwaizumi said, and it sounded like a command. 

“Yep, nothing wrong with making yourself comfortable on the roof and look out for any threats.” Matsun chirped, already unbuckling his seatbelt to step out of the van.

“I still need to wrap up your injuries.” Maki mentioned with a serious face.

“It’s nothing. Just some cuts and bruises. You already put disinfectant on them.” Toru answered, pulling out the chair from under the table to step on it, in order to open the small window on the ceiling.

“A slight scratch can be dangerous if it gets infected. There’s only so much we can do with the limited resources we have.” Maki explained. After all, they were far away from civilisation, and calling the hospital wasn’t possible either, since in within the past two weeks the entire world shut down completely after the outbreak of a mysterious illness; an illness that had the world in its grasp, tightening its hold slowly every passing day.

“He’s right.” Iwaizumi nodded his head, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Listen to him. He’s a professional.” yelled Matsun from outside, and everyone shot him a glare, since being loud out in the open when it was getting dark outside should be avoided.

“You’re a physician?” asked Toru, cocking his head to the side.

“Ahh, no I am not a doctor. I was a nurse; worked in the hospital.” Maki answered sheepishly, scratching his cheek.

“Good to know that one of us has had medical education.” Hajime said, relief seeping through his voice, and with that he left the van, starting to get the branches out of the way.

When Maki stepped out, he took a deep breath in, closing his eyes and enjoying the nice fresh air that entered his lungs. The van had been stuffy and going outside cleared his mind. The sun had already begun to set, casting its colours over the trees, like it did on the lake, though this time the light was dimmer, and the sun had almost disappeared, dipping the horizon closely above the trees in a deep reddish orange. The light; however, was still enough for them to see. If they weren’t so low on petrol, then they would have left the engine running. That way they would have had a giant flashlight.

“You haven’t even started moving a branch, and yet you’re already taking a break. I am disappointed.” Matsun called out, but in the tone of his voice, Maki knew the other was just joking, not minding it at all.

“Coming.” Takahiro chuckled, running towards the other two men.

He didn’t exactly expect the wood to be that heavy, and it did wore him out a little, more so than he would have initially thought. While Iwaizumi and Matsun heaved the heavy objects that blocked the path away, Maki did his best to pretend that he was actually helping. After a good 10 minutes, they had successfully cleared the road.

“That was the last one. Let’s hope the path is free now.”

“Then let’s go. I am sweaty, and these stupid mosquitos are so god damn annoying.” Matsun said, swatting at the buzzing insects that tried to suck his blood.

“Yeah, these little bitches are coming at me too.” Maki commented, flailing his hands around to get the mosquitos to stop biting him.

The group carefully continued driving up the hill, but the lack of sunlight entering the thick wooden area hindered their progress. The path was bumpy and uneven, and every once in a while the van jumped up, causing them to fall forward, just to be caught by their seat belts.

When they finally arrived at the abandoned bunker, it was pitch-black outside; only the headlights bathing the run-down looking bunker in light. The base looked more like a stranded submarine that had been buried into the ground. The shape wasn’t matching Maki’s imagination of a bunker at all. 

“So that’s how a bunker can also look like.” Maki commented.

“It’s a base the military used 30 years ago. There haven’t been any people ever since.” Hajime informed, driving the van closer to the entrance of the bunker, so that they could see inside.

“We should spend the night in here.” Toru spoke up, clinging onto the little kid that hadn’t moved from his side even once.

“I agree. It looks haunted.” Maki nodded and looking at the building did creep him out.

“Don’t tell me you believe in ghosts.” Iwaizumi quirked an eyebrow, shooting the pink-haired man a questioning look.

“I don’t, but I am still not going to enter an abandoned and fuck-up looking former military base that, by the way, is in the woods, in the middle of the night.” Takahiro justified. No sane person would ever go in there when it was dark outside.

“I am not going in there either. I don’t have a proton pack with me.” Matsun said, and Maki chuckled.

“A what? Never mind, let’s call it a day.” Hajime sighed, tiredly rubbing his eyes. Matsun and Hanamaki blankly stared at the soldier.

“Don’t mind Iwa-chan. He’s never seen ghostbusters.” Toru said dismissively, and the other two gasped, theatrically covering their mouths.

“Shut up.” grumbled Hajime, not in the mood to discuss his reluctance to see that movie, not that he’d ever have the time to watch it now. 

They settled down on the folding table for a late snack while Maki wrapped up the cuts and bruises on the three newcomers. The silence, that settled between them, got heavy. It wasn’t a comfortable silence because everyone looked lost in their own thoughts, too preoccupied to make conversation. Even Oikawa, who - when awake - talked non-stop, making up for Iwaizumi’s lack of conversation, didn’t say a word. Instead, he was watching Maki like he was in trance; hypnotised by the sound of wrappers being opened and cuts being cleaned. Matsun had to admit that watching Maki patch people up with so much care was indeed enchanting. The way his eyes focused solely on the task at hand, and the way his tongue stuck slightly out of his mouth looked endearingly cute. Even the little kid seemed to warm up to the light-haired man, though they still had to figure out his name.

“Do you guys think that things will go back to normal?” Toru asked with genuine concern in his voice, breaking the quietness that had fallen upon the group. He had a solemn, almost sad expression on his face, and he was staring at nothing in particular.

Nobody seemed to have an answer or know how to answer, without either sounding too pessimistic or too naïve.

“Maybe the world how it is right now, is the new ‘normal’.” Matsun shrugged his shoulders. Mopping around would solve nothing, and he’d rather not think too much ahead because it would just make him paranoid. His mind would come up with all kinds of scenarios, and he wasn’t ready to dwell on the worst that could happen, since it would just contribute to him questioning himself.

“We should just concentrate on the here and now. I don’t believe the world’s ever gonna be like it was before, even if this crisis were to be overcome.” Hajime commented; his eyes practically boring holes into the brunette sitting next to him.

“That’s not necessarily bad.” Hanamaki piqued in, “I mean, the world’s new normal could someday be a better normal than the normal we used to live in.”

“How philosophical of you.” Issei stifled a laugh behind his hand.

“I am tiring to lighten the mood here, unlike someone. This circle is depressing. Compared to you guys, Charlie Brown would be an optimistic opportunist.” Maki waved him off, pointing at their gloomy faces.

“You’re Right. We could be six-feet under by now but we aren’t, so let’s drop the sulking and play a game.” Matsun suggested, and Maki’s face lit up along with Oikawa’s.

“A game?” Iwaizumi asked sceptically, his eyes narrowing at the man suggesting such a thing.

“Yes! So, does someone want to make a request?” Maki cheered, and everyone but Iwaizumi seemed to be on it.

Several card games later - in which most of them tried to cheat anyway - they ended up playing parlour games.

“When will the rest of your folks join us?” Matsun asked, resting his head into the crook of his arm.

“Not sure. If they walk all the way, then probably several days.” Iwaizumi answered.

“So we won’t be staying here?” Maki’s face showed surprise. He thought they would at least stay here for the next few weeks if everything was safe.

“The van is comfy.” Toru yawned, rubbing his eyes. It had been a perpetual day, and the exhaustion was visible on his face.

“We can’t keep living in a van. Our group isn’t complete, and there’s not enough room for all of us. We should start looking for a proper shelter. The bunker will suffice for some days.” Hajime said tiredly.

 _’Can’t we just go without them.’_ Toru grumbled under his breath, but it was too quiet for the others to hear. He knew it wasn’t right, but with Kiyoko not being there with them, he would have Iwa-chan to himself. 

“Did you say something?” The raven-haired man asked.

“Nope. Nothing.” The brunette smiled, so the other let him be.

“Then let’s sleep. I am beat.” Matsun announced, although he noticed Oikawa looked troubled. Maybe he wasn’t just reading too much into his new friend’s expression. It could just be his tiredness showing on his features, after all.

“Yes! Matsun tell me a bedtime story.” Joked Hanamaki, but Issei didn’t take it as a joke, committing himself to actually tell them a fairy tale, an adjusted version of Cinderella that did not seem to have a happily ever-after.

“Wait. So, the evil stepmother chopped of poor Cinderella’s feet, so that she couldn’t try on the shoe? That’s not how the story goes. Where’s the singing mice?” Maki complained as he snuggled up against the other.

“That’s not a story appropriate for a 4-years old.” Deadpanned Toru, so he was still intently listening.

“It’s far more effective than locking her up in the attic. Besides, the kid is sleeping.” Iwaizumi commented.

“For your information. It’s not the Disney version.” Matsun explained, and then he cleared his throat to continue: “So the evil stepmother cut off Cinderella’s precious feet - and before one of you is going to ask about the noise, the stepmother muffled Cinderella’s screams - and then she went back downstairs to convince the prince that her stepdaughter can’t try on the glass shoe.” Matsun went on, and then he changed his voice: “the Prince insisted: ‘That I will see for myself. Bring her down here if you wish for your head to remain attached to your body.’”

“Wow, he’s kinda hardcore. I’d advise Cinderella to marry someone sane.” Toru said, looking up from his pillow.

“I agree. The guy’s a psycho.” Maki nodded in agreement.

“Your constant commentary is disrupting the flow of my story.” Matsun sighed. It was just a story.

“Be quiet. I wanna hear how it ends.” Hajime stated, and it was amusing to see the usually gruff man so interested in a mere remastered fairy tale.

“We’ll be quiet now.” The two to zip their mouths shut in pretence, throwing the imaginary key away. 

The dark-haired man sighed and resumed the story where he left off: “The stepmother obliged, however, she only did so grudgingly. As she returned to the attic, Cinderella was nowhere to be found. With dread, the stepmother was set to notify the prince of Cinderella’s disappearance, shockingly though, she came back, finding the girl sitting in front of the prince, about to try on the glass shoe, unharmed and with both her feet. In a shrill voice the old women demanded: ‘How are you still walking when you should not be?’. Cinderella did not answer, and in a desperate attempt to stop her from putting the shoe on, the stepmother activated her powers and shot laser out of her eyes, destroying the shoe as a result.” Matsun continued, and he was yet again interrupted.

“Why can she shoot lasers out of her eyes?” Maki asked, leaning over on the other male’s chest; a confused look on his face.

“Because I am the storyteller and I say she can. She’s evil, remember? Do you wanna tell the story instead?” Matsun pushed Takahiro’s head back down on his shoulder.

“Please go on.” Hanamaki said obediently.

“How did Cinderella suddenly get her feet back?” Hajime asked, and Issei was getting annoyed because Iwaizumi too was joining the other two in with the asking questions.

“Black magic.” Matsun deadpanned.

“Why not her fairy godmother?” Oikawa thought out loud. Well, it did make more sense, after all.

“So, she’s giving her back her feet, but she doesn’t deem it necessary to get her out of that abusive household in the first place. Some godmother she is.” Iwaizumi huffed.

“If she did, then we wouldn’t have a story, would we?” Issei cleared his throat: “Anyway, a string of gasps resonated through the room, and their faces morphed into disbelief. ‘Oh no, the shoe was shattered into pieces. How shall we now confirm her identity?’ the advisor asked, but out of her pocket, Cinderella pulled out another shoe made of glass. The adviser then shouted: ‘A second shoe! The lost princess. It must be her.’”

“No shit, Sherlock.” Maki deadpanned, but Matsukawa glared at him, so the pink-haired man laid his head back down.

“‘The lost princess. It must be her’ the advisor gasped, and the prince took it and put it on her tiny child’s feet. ‘So, it is you. I knew the moment I saw you.’ The prince said, and with those words, the fairy godmother appeared. ‘Good evening folks’ she greeted and then she addressed the prince: ‘take this girl for your wife; your majesty, for she is modest and good. As she has known injustice, she will be able to reign with justice.’ The prince fell down on his knees, presenting to Cinderella, a ring of brilliant colour and adorned with beautiful stones. ‘I hereby asked for your hand, so tell me my love, will become my official wife?’ the prince asked with hope in his eyes.

“Official wife? Does he have more than one?” Oikawa asked questioningly, but Issei just went on with the story, ignoring the brunette’s question.

“Cinderella looked at her godmother and then turned towards the prince: ‘I am sorry dude, but you only like me for my face not my qualities. Besides, I am not into guys that wear pantyhose.’ She—.” The raven-haired man breathed out heavily through his nose, closing his eyes.

”Woah, what’s her issue with guys wearing tights? I’ll have you know that I look good in anything.” Toru suddenly piqued in. Again.

“Aren’t you confident.” laughed Takahiro while Iwaizumi grumbled: “You’re always ugly Shitykawa.”

”Eventually, Cinderella changed her name and left the kingdom to escape the prince’s stalking behaviour. There she settled down and opened a tea shop. The end.” Matsun drawled, finishing the story.

”Why a tea shop?” Maki asked again; an amused grin on his face.

“Yeah, why not a fan shop that sells alien merchandise?” Oikawa asked, equally amused.

”The fuck. Next time you two tell the story.” The dark-haired man said, pouting.

”Haha just kidding. I liked your version better.” Maki smiled.

”Aww, you flatter me.” Matsun smiled back. It was nice having the other man there. He couldn’t even imagine Maki not being there with him anymore.

“Stop acting like a couple on their honeymoon. It makes me want to puke my gut out.” Oikawa muttered, crunching up his nose. It wasn’t really the case, but the two of them being all cutesy together made him a little jealous. They weren’t even a couple, but they behaved like one, anyway. They didn’t care what others might think of them, even if they walked into bigoted people that took issue with it.

“As if I’d bring you two along on our honeymoon.” Issei answered with a huff as if the mere assumption that he would invite anyone else offended him.

“Hey, I make good company!” Toru sulked.

“No, you don’t.” Iwaizumi grumbled, smacking the brunette over the head.

“Ow!”

**00000**

The next morning, Maki opened his eyes and woke up to an empty space beside him. The sheet was crumpled and cold, and the van - upon further inspection - was empty. Takahiro sat up and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, and outside he could hear voices. So, he crawled out of the bed, looking for his shoes and shirt.

“Why didn’t you wake me up?” asked Maki when he got out of the van.

“Because you were sleeping so peacefully.” Matsun answered.

“How’s the bunker? Did you find any ghosts?” Hanamaki asked curiously.

“No ghosts, but a toolbox and some other stuff. Iwaizumi repaired the generator, so the lights work. We don’t know for how long though because we don’t have enough gas.”

Maki hummed and walked past the black-haired man, walking straight into the bunker. The front area looked wrecked, and the neglect of maintenance was clearly visible. It was dirty; it smelled of decay, and all sorts of things such as boxes, wood, metal cans, etc. were scattered around the place. There was a flickering light bulb on the ceiling that at least lightened up the very dark corners of the bunker that the natrual light of the sun couldn’t reach. The smell, however, was horrible, and Maki had to gag multiple times before he could completely enter the run-down building. There was one big window at either side of the entrance. It was wide in length, but not in width. It was broken and the shards of glass were laying on the ground. The entrance area hadn’t been safe from the changing weather conditions, but how could it have been when the door, at some point, jumped out of the hinge?

Hanamaki went further inside. There were at least three other rooms. The aisles weren’t as dirty, but it still smelled of dead animals and the cow webs adorned every corner and every part of the building. It was a good thing the others had gone in there before him because otherwise he would have been met with a lot of spiders.

The illumination wasn’t the best still, but he didn’t have to use a flashlight. In the next room he entered, he found Oikawa and Iwaizumi rummaging through the cupboards and boxes. 

“Found anything useful?” the pink-haired man asked curiously. Oikawa’s disgusted expression and the fact that he opened some of the boxes with a pair of barbecue tongs that he found looked hilarious.

“Not really. Most of the food expired a long time ago.” The brunette answered, bored.

“Take this outside.” Iwaizumi said, pushing a box into Maki’s hands, and he answered: “Sure thing.”

Back outside, Maki put the box down to see what was in there. He rubbed the small of his back while going through the items because the cartoon box had been quite heavy, putting a strain on his lower back. Inside, he found an old cassette recorder, some pencils, stained and yellowed paper, a first-aid kit, rusty nails, two binoculars, ammunition, a flick knife, and a set of walkie-talkies. Takahiro took one of the walkie-talkies to inspect it further. He shook the device in his hand and then he turned it around. He opened the batterie holder and wondered whether it would still work after nearly three decades.

His head suddenly spun to the right when his ears picked up on the rustling inside of the bushes. He swallowed the lump in his throat and drops of sweat collected on his brow. Maki stood up slowly, holding his breath while not taking his eyes off the rustling. When Matsun stumbled out of the bushes, Takahiro sighed in relief.

“What were you doing?” Hanamaki asked.

“Checked the area.” The raven-haired man answered.

“Alone?” The pink-haired man had a look of disbelief on his face.

“No. The little kid went with me.” Issei answered, pointing at the boy standing behind him. He was looking at Maki with his big eyes and a neutral face; as silent as he was from the very start.

Maki huffed in a sarcastic tone: “How reassuring.”

“It’ll take a few days to clean out the bunker.” Remarked Matsun, and Hanamaki gave him a blank look, pursing his lips.

“Don’t just leave without proper back-up. If I had taken a stroll through the woods, you would have freaked out.” Takahiro pouted, crossing his arms over his chest.

“That’s different.” Issei said impassively. Maybe he worried too much, but Maki still had a lot to learn.

“How so?” Takahiro narrowed his eyes into slits.

“I know how to use a knife,” Matsun stated, pointing the bottom of a half-full water bottle at him, “Your knife-handling skills on the other hand, are mediocre at best.”

“Toché.” Maki answered, feeling a tad offended but still seeing the point. “Still, don’t just wander off like that. It’s dangerous.”

“Note taken. I won’t do it again.” The raven-haired male smiled, ruffling through Maki’s light-brownish hair.

After some time, Iwaizumi and Oikawa came out of the bunker with two more boxes. They did clean out two of the rooms, but since they didn’t plan on staying there for long, they didn’t bother with the rest.

Three days passed by and upon the fourth day, Oikawa started getting impatient, and so did Matsukawa.

“It’s been three days, and they’re still not here.” Toru drawled. It was getting on his nerves. 

“Maybe they didn’t make it.” Matsukawa said, and Maki elbowed him into the stomach; a disapproving glare on his face.

“No. They’ll come. Let’s give them another day.” Iwaizumi said, and the rest sighed. The weather conditions weren’t the best because the heat was getting to them. No rain had fallen for several weeks, and the soil was dry and as hard as stone.

They spread out the map they found in the bunker, on the ground; stones on either corner of the map to make sure it didn’t roll up.

“We don’t have enough gas. We probably only make it out of the woods, and maybe to rest stop a little further north.” Issei explained, drawing a small circle around the station, marked on the map.

“How far is the next village?” Hajime asked, watching the area through the binocular.

“2 hours from the station if we make a stop there.” the other male answered.

“We should plan on leaving this place. What if the zombies changed their course and are now heading in our direction?” Toru asked, tapping his foot nervously on the ground. He wasn’t keen on running into the hoard. After three days, they have only encountered a handful, but this could change in a matter of seconds.

“If that’s the case, then we should probably get going.” Hanamaki said warily. “We could leave a note, so that your friends know where we are.” he then suggested.

Iwaizumi sighed, and then he put the binoculars down. He looked worried but at the same time very composed. “Let’s pack up for now. If they aren’t here by noon, then we’ll go ahead.” the former soldier stated with pursed lips, and the rest nodded in agreement.

The sun had almost reached its highest point in the sky, and upon looking into the distance the horizon appeared to flicker like the flames of a fire. The air was sticky and the oppressive heat was merciless. At times like this, Matsun wished he’d be back in his air-conditioned flat or sitting in front of a ventilator. The heat was killing him.

He, Maki, Toru and the little boy sat by the van under the shadow, since the clearing, the bunker was located at, didn’t offer much shelter from the sun. They were on the lookout, waiting for people to appear from the trees. Hanamaki leaned against Matsukawa; his sweaty back pressing against the raven-haired man’s arm, serving as a heater which wasn’t comfortable at all.

“You’re too warm.” Matsun complained pushing weakly against the other.

“How’s he not affected by the heat?” Takahiro drawled out and Matsun turned his head to Iwaizumi, who didn’t seem to mind the warm and heavy weather at all. 

“I am dying!” Oikawa moaned, throwing his head back to emphasise his statement. He should have stayed in the bunker. It was cooler in there because of the thick walls.

“Then go inside!” Iwaizumi yelled while rolling his eyes.

“Did you hear that?” Maki asked; his head suddenly perking up.

“Hear what? Hajme yelling?” Issei asked with a raised eyebrow.

“I didn’t hear anything, but Iwa-chan’s yell. I think the heat’s getting to you Maki-chan.” The brunette muttered, waving air towards himself with his flat hand.

Hanamaki; however, abruptly stood up, walking towards the road they had used to get up the hill.

“Where are you going?” 

“I heard voices.” Takahiro stated, looking into the woods. 

The two men followed Hanamaki, trying to be as quiet as possible, so they could listen closely to their surroundings. 

“All I am hearing is the wind and the stupid birds.” Oikawa grumbled, but then his eyes shot into the same direction as Maki’s. 

“There! I told you. Oi!” the pink-haired man waved at the three people appearing from the woods. He didn’t know them, but he knew what they looked like. Two people were missing, though, but it turned out that the female soldier had lost them.

Toru’s face fell when he saw Kiyoko, and he scowled while Matsukawa and Hanamaki waved at the new people like they had known them for years. Not that he wasn’t glad that they were fine and unharmed. It was the fact that Iwa-chan was now going to be colder towards him. He didn’t want the man to distance himself from him just because his stupid wife was back. He also hated the fact that Hajime was still in denial and being a dick.

While the others were busy making introduction, Oikawa had to stand by and endure the way too long greeting that Iwa-chan gave Kiyoko and the agape stares of Matsun and Maki. They seemed surprised by the face that Iwaizumi was married.

The little boy next to him took his hand in his and squeezed it, turning Toru’s attention toward him. The brunette didn’t know what to make of it, but he squeezed it back.

“When are you going to tell me your name? I can’t be calling you little kid for the rest of our miserable lives.” Oikawa commented, eyeing the raven-haired boy who just stared blankly at him. His staring was intense, and the brunette was going to feel uncomfortable.

“Should I just give you a name?” he then asked, laughing awkwardly. The child shook his head, looking down at the dirty ground.

“Can you write?” Toru asked, and the 4-year-old shook his head again. The brunette sighed, rubbing his hand down his face.

“Do you even know what your name is?” the child nodded, narrowing his eyes at Toru. He probably felt offended by the question.

“Do you know the alphabet?” he opted to ask, hoping that the boy would at least know the letters of his own name. Which kid his age didn’t know how to spell and write their own name?

The boy nodded again, and Oikawa decided to pick out a pen and go getting a piece of paper. 

“What are you doing?” Maki asked, following him.

“Figuring out what the kid’s name is.”

“Oh! I’ll tag along. Hey Matsun, move your ass over here!” he called out, and Matsukawa slowly but surely trotted in their direction. 

Oikawa wrote the alphabet onto the yellowed paper, leaving a lot of space and using capital letters.

“So, just show me the first letter of your name. Is it an ‘A’ like in apple?” he asked, pointing at the letter A. The boy shook his head, and they continued that way until they got to the letter T, which apparently was the first letter of the boys name, and the rest of the letters. 

“So, your name is Tobio.” Maki stated, and the boy nodded, smiling for the first time.

“Should have done that earlier.” muttered Oikawa, wiping the sweat from his forehead.

“So, Iwaizumi is married.” suddenly pointed out Matsukawa; an amused expression on his face.

“to a woman.” Takahiro finished while playing with Tobio.

“Yes. So?” asked Toru annoyed, narrowing his eyes at his two friends.

“Didn’t expect that.” Maki shrugged his shoulders, and Matsun remarked with a snicker: “Well, you thought the two of them were married and had a child.”

“Excuse me for jumping to conclusions.” pouted Hanamaki, swatting the raven-haired man onto the chest, so that he would stop laughing.

Oikawa didn’t know what to say. He just blankly stared at them. He didn’t know that they had assumed Iwa-chan and he were a couple let alone a couple with a child. Should he feel flattered? He wondered what Iwa-chan said about it.

“You’re not just friends, are you?” Issei asked; his gaze fixed on the brunette.

After about an entire minute without answering the question, Toru said: “We’re… best friends. We’ve known each other forever.” There was a small tender smile playing on his lips. What else was he supposed to say? That he had been in love with his best friend almost his entire life? That he was jealous of Kiyoko because she was the person standing by Iwa-chan’s side? That they did fuck a few times, and that Hajime called it meaningless? He couldn’t. Not when it seemed like he was the only who had those feelings, although he didn’t want to believe that it was a one-sided love. If Iwa-chan was in denial, then he could too.

“If you say so.” Matsun sighed, though he noticed the change of expression on Oikawa’s face. It wasn’t even that subtle. He and Maki should make a bet on Iwaizumi’s and Oikawa’s relationship later. Just for fun.

“At least we can finally leave this place.” Hanamaki chirped, patting - or hitting - the brunette on the back. “The two of you were complaining a lot.” he chuckled.

**00000**

When the group arrived at the rest stop, they parked the van at one of the petrol pumps, hoping it would still work.

“Okay, two of us plus Tobio will stay here, tank the van and fill up the fuel canisters while the rest will check out the store.” Iwaizumi said, checking his gun.

“I’ll do i-it.” Yachi stuttered out,

Hajime nodded: “Take care of the keys. Are you sure you can carry a full canister?” He had a questioning look on his face.

“I can.” The blonde girl answered determinedly, and Iwaizumi took her by her word.

“Toru, you stay here too.” Hajime said.

“Huuh? Why me? Freckles should help her out.” the brunette exclaimed, perplexed.

“The kid sticks to you like glue, so just do it.” The ravenette rolled his eyes, and Oikawa started pouting, grumbling something under his breath.

“We’ll make it quick Toru.” Maki smiled as he got out of the van.

Oikawa watched as the others, even the jittery freckled boy, walked towards the store, checking the area around them first. The brunette crossed his arms over his chest as he leaned against the door of the van. Then he looked at the girl who was tanking the vehicle.

“You’ll be fine on your own right? You don’t really need me here, so I am gonna join the others.” Toru said, pushing himself of the van, “You stay here too, Tobio-chan.” he ordered, rushing toward the group, that was now standing in front of the store.

“But Iwaizumi said—” Yachi started, though Oikawa was already gone before she could finish. “that two people should stay…”

As the brunette caught up with them, he wondered why they were still staring at the door. “Why aren’t you entering?” he asked, startling the others.

“Waah! Don’t just appear out of nowhere behind me.” Hanamaki glared, jumping as Toru suddenly spoke up.

“What are you doing here? You are supposed to stay with Hitoka and help her. And now Tobio is here too. That’s why I told you to stay back.” Iwaizumi sounded angry, and the glare he was giving the brunette affirmed it.

“Tobio-chan?! I told you to stay at the van.” the brunette gasped out, only now realising that the boy had followed him. Then he looked back at Hajime: “Blondie’s doing fine on her own. Stop giving me orders.” Oikawa shrugged, rolling his eyes exaggeratingly slowly and for everyone to see.

“Say that again the next time I have to save your sorry ass.” warned Iwaizumi, grabbing Toru by the front of his shirt.

“I don’t need you to save my sorry ass. I am very capable of taking care of myself.” Oikawa spat, though he didn’t mean to sound that hostile. He also wasn’t so sure about his so-called capabilities. He sucked at fighting, and he didn’t know how to shoot a gun. Maybe he shouldn’t have said that.

Iwaizumi was about to argue further, but Kiyoko interrupted the upcoming dispute. “You guys hurry up. I’ll stay with Hitoka.”

“But you are the only one, beside me and Mr Grumpy over there who has combat experience.” Matsun argued.

“Exactly. That’s why I should stay with Hitoka, in case something happens.” She answered calmly.

“You’ve got a point here.” The raven-haired man answered.

“Let’s just speed this up.” Iwaizumi sighed, rubbing his temples in irritation.

Maki was the first one to enter the store, followed closely by Matsun. The scene they had just walked into was nauseating, and the bile rose to Hanamaki’s throat, leaving a burning sensation in his oesophagus and a foul taste in his mouth. It was partly due to the stench, but mostly because of what was inside the store. As the rest of the group entered, the air fell silent, and Yamaguchi was the first one to storm out and barf into the bushes the second he was outside. Toru covered Tobio’s eyes, so that nothing in front of him could burn itself into his memories, only to become a haunting nightmare. 

“So, freckles is staying back too.” Matsun chuckled, though the whole situation stunted his humour a tad.

“Holy shit...” the brunette muttered, covering his nose.

Maki had to cover his mouth with his hand; face turning pale.

“You call it.” Hajime mumbled back, equally taken aback by what the store looked like.

“What the fuck happened in here?” Matsun asked, and his normally neutral expression morphed into one of pure shock.

The walls, the counter, the shelves, the tiled floor: Everything was covered in dried blood. Blood splatters and bloody handprints painted a picture of horror, and the horrible stench of rot mixed with iron hung in the air. It felt like the people’s screams, their fear and dismay was still echoing from the walls.

“I have to step out. I think I’ve changed my mind. I am gonna help blondie.” Oikawa breathed out, trying to control the need to retch. He pulled Tobio with him outside, without removing his hands from the boy’s eyes once.

“Let’s see what we can find.” Iwaizumi spoke up, covering up his nose with his shirt and deciding to breathe through his mouth. The former soldier’s clear voice put an end to the surreal feeling in this kind of situation, getting Maki and Matsun back into motion. Their group had suddenly shrunk considerably, since Yamaguchi and Oikawa decided to help Kiyoko and Hitoka out.

“Yeah. Let’s see what we can get.” Only now did Matsun feel the slight pain that shot up his arm from the tight clasp Maki had on his hand.

Hajime stepped over the fallen shelves and groceries, carefully and still on high alert. Looking into every corner, in case a zombie was there as he looked for proviant and useful goods.

Issei’s eyes were fixed on a motionless and shell-shock Maki, whose brown orbs were wide open. “Are you okay?”

Takahiro flinched at the raven-haired man’s voice and then he blinked: “Hmmh?”

“Do you wanna step out? You don’t need to help with the search if you’re not feeling well.” Matsun explained with a worried look in his eyes.

“No! I am fine. I was just a bit shocked.” the pink-haired male spluttered out, “Let’s do this quickly.”

Maki walked through the saloon door into the kitchen, and Matsukawa followed suit. They shouldn’t split up. Only stupid people in horror movies thought splitting up was a good idea, but the next room didn’t look any less gruesome.

Nothing seemed to be there; he couldn’t hear no zombie, neither their typical groans nor their peculiar wheezing or rattle in the throat. Everything looked safe. From the walkie-talkie, Matsun got a ‘all clear’ from Iwaizumi, and his tense shoulders relaxed a little as his eyes wandered through the kitchen.

“Aaah fuck!” Maki screamed out as he tumbled to the floor and back away from a door. As soon as Matsukawa heard him, he drew his knife and rushed to his friend’s side, helping a startled Hanamaki up.

“What’s wrong?” asked Issei confused and alerted. Iwaizumi too rushed into the room, armed.

“What’s going on? Why did you scream?” the man asked, taking down the flick knife.

“In there.” stuttered out the other, pointing at the small window of the door in front of them: the storage room.

Iwaizumi looked into the small window and backed off immediately as something jumped against the small window. The sudden appearance of several zombies banging their hands against the window while try to bite through the glass, startled him, and it took him a while to get his pulse back to normal, and his beating heart steadied again.

Matsun also looked inside, and the storage room was practically stuffed full with these things, and he briefly wondered when and who had managed to lock them in there.

“Should we clear the place out or should we just leave them in there and go?” Issei asked, looking at Iwaizumi for an answer.

“Let’s just leave them in there.” Hajime said, inspecting the door and the agitated and starving zombies inside. “There’s too many inside. If we opened the door only slightly, they would easily manage to break through.” the soldier explained.

“Then let’s get out of here.” Matsun said and then he looked at Hanamaki. “Are you sure you’re alright?”

“I told you I am fine.” The light-haired man assured, getting up from the floor and patting his knees down for whatever reason.

-At the van-

“Do you need help?” Kiyoko asked the blonde girl who was just desperately trying to move the fuel canister she had just filled with gas.

“Huh?” Hitoka’s head shot up, and she blushed as she saw the black-haired woman smile at her. She mumbled out a small: “Yes, please.” and watched the soldier load the canister into the van.

“Ehm, I filled up the tank, and one canister. The other pumps are all empty.” Yachi said, scratching at her face. “Why are you here?”

“Toru just left you alone. Nobody should be on their own right now.” Kiyoko answered calmly.

The blonde girl wanted to say something, but Yamaguchi got back to the van, looking sick.

“What’s happened to you?” she asked frantically, rushing towards him.

“The smell...and the whole...everything. It was horrible.” Tadashi mumbled out, putting his hand over his mouth and sliding down the wall of the van.

“Here.” The black-haired woman offered the teen some water, “Take a sip. It’ll get better.”

Only seconds later, Oikawa and Tobio made an appearance, and the brunette looked as bored as ever.

“So, what brought you back?” Kiyoko asked Toru curiously, though she knew it was probably because of what was inside the store.

“Tobio shouldn’t see such things.” Oikawa answered flatly, pointing at the boy standing next to him.

 _‘You should have stayed here to begin with.’_ The raven-haired soldier thought, but again, Toru probably wasn’t even aware of the fact anymore that the kid was following him everywhere.

Tobio started to rapidly tug on the brunette’s sleeve until he finally got Oikawa’s attention.

“What is it Tobio-chan?” the man drawled out; annoyance lacing his tone.

The 4-year-old pointed at the car that stopped a little further down the road, and the four men that approached them. Toru couldn’t recognise anything about them from the distance, but the way two of them moved and carried themselves didn’t make them look trustworthy or friendly. One of the men had a very slouchy way of walking. He dragged his feet down the street, and it somewhat seemed like he tried to impersonate one of these sheriffs from old western movies. His sense of fashion was just as ridiculous as his walking style. They looked like stereotypical thugs.

Toru elbowed Kiyoko in the side to get her attention and then he pointed at the sleazy looking men: “There are people walking toward us.”

“What!?” Hitoka and Tadashi whisper-yelled with panic in their voices, hiding behind the female soldier.

“Let’s just stay calm.” Kiyoko said, narrowing her eyes at the men. She wondered why they would park their car down the street and not drive into the driveway. They were acting suspiciously.

As the strangers came closer, she could clearly see that they were heavily armed for some reason, and the fact that their hands were close to the guns, they carried in the holsters, told her that they might be hostile. Two of them appeared to be close to her age, while one might be in his thirties and the other one couldn’t be older than 19.

“Nice van you have here.” one of the men said, pointing at the vehicle. He was bald, his stance was broad, and he put both his thumbs into the front pockets of his jeans, so they could see the gun.

“So what?” Toru narrowed his eyes at them, and Kiyoko internally face-palmed herself. So much for staying calm. The brunette was in a foul mood, and sometimes he just couldn’t keep his mouth shut.

The bald man chuckled, although the rude answer seemed to irritate him because it was short and gruff; no humour or friendliness whatsoever. “We were just wondering if you needed help. “We’re a big group, and we’re always looking for survivors to join us.” The lustful way he looked at Hitoka and the way he slicked his lips was disgusting.

“No, thank you.” Kiyoko answered, protectively stepping in front of the blonde girl who - under the intense gaze of the stranger - had felt really uncomfortable.

“As she said. We’re gonna pass.” Toru back the woman up, gritting his teeth. He so didn’t want to have to deal with such perverted people.

“What a shame.” The bald-headed man answered; eyes still fixed on Yachi. “Today might be your lucky day. We’re looking for two guys. Maybe you’ve seen them.” The man went on, on another member of the groups stepped forward, agitated.

“If I get my hands on them those fuckers who killed my beloved brothers, I’ll—“ the brunette stopped when his bald friend held up his hand; a sign that told him to shut the fuck up.

“Anyway. One is about your height, maybe a little smaller and the other one is tall and has black hair.” the stranger explained, and Oikawa’s eyes widened ever so slightly when the description the blonde guy was giving, made him think of Matsun and Maki. He hoped he was wrong.

“You see, they robbed us and killed his brothers, even broke my friend’s nose.” the stranger said, pointing at the angry brunette guy and then at a blonde guy who had heavy bruising below his eyes and a patch on his nose.

“We didn’t see anyone that matched your description.” The black-haired woman answered impassively. The air was tense, and the four men didn’t have the intention to leave.

“Is that so.” He answered, and his tone clarified that he didn’t believe her. “We didn’t catch your names earlier, so—

“That’s because you didn’t ask for our names.” Toru remarked, crossing his arms over his chest. He knew he shouldn’t do it, but there was no way he would suck up to them. So, if they intended to kill them anyway, then he would at least go down with his dignity intact.

The bald man suddenly grabbed him by the face, squeezing his jaw hard and digging his fingers into his mouth while putting the gun to his head. They tasted sour and salty. It was disgusting.

“Don’t anger me boy and don’t be a smartass.” He warned, eye bugging out. It made him look crazy. The look in the man’s eyes, and the murderous intent that his gaze held, scared the brunette.

He couldn’t even avoid eye contact because of the tight grip on his jaw. It felt like if the stranger continued to tighten his clasp, Oikawa’s bones would break and succumb to the extreme and painful pressure. Right now, Toru really wished Iwa-chan were there to help him.

The other three men pointed their guns at Kiyoko, Tadashi and Hitoka, which prevented them from stepping in. Tobio was still clinging onto Oikawa; his eyes shut closed firmly and his fingernails digging into the fabric of the brunette’s shirt. The pull on his shirt was the one thing Toru tried to concentrate on, so that he could suppress the feeling of fear building up in his gut as the man pressed the gun harder into the side of his head. The brunette’s own hand grabbed onto the bald-headed guy’s arm to relief the pressure the man’s grip had on his jaw muscles. The pain was still there, though, and it was making him feel dizzy.

“I hope I made myself clear.” The bald man backed off, letting go of Toru completely. The other men put their guns down, though they were not sticking them back into the holsters.

Oikawa coughed and rubbed the sides of his face, still feeling the gross taste of the stranger’s fingers in his mouth. It made him sick to his stomach.

“W-What do you w-want from us?” Yamaguchi stuttered out, frightened and the group of men exchanged a look and then they laughed.

“So, you can talk.” the youngest of the group snickered condescendingly. He wore a bandana around his head, and he was missing a tooth.

“What do we want, indeed...” the bald man, the oldest of the group, said as he stepped closer to Hitoka. “You’re quite cute.”

As Kiyoko tried to interfere, the brown-haired guy stepped up and pointed a gun at her, “Don’t do anything stupid.” he said, and the ravenette put her hands to the side. Her fingers started twitching, and she had trouble keeping herself composed.

The leader of the group stood over the scared blonde girl and grabbed her by the hips, pushing her against him, so he could breathe down her neck. She yelped and pushed against his chest, but the man, at least 20 years older than her, didn’t budge, opening the first two buttons of her blouse.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Oikawa asked rhetorically, still shaken up by the man’s earlier attack. So, that guy was that kind of pervert. The brunette balled his hands into fists, feeling utterly powerless right now. 

“Hey!” Yamaguchi sputtered out, biting down on his bottom lip.

“Don’t touch her!” Kiyoko yelled angrily, and she promptly reacted. Her movements were too fast for the guy with the gun, and the soldier swiftly drew her knife holding it against the bald-headed man’s neck. “By the time you shoot, I will have pierced his neck.” Kiyoko said to the gunmen; her voice calm yet dangerous. 

The stranger side-glanced her, and their eyes met, then he made a motion with his hand, so his lackeys would put their weapons down.

“Now. Back. Off.” she spat, and he did. Yachi had tears falling from her eyes, and she was shaking like a leaf in the wind. The black-haired woman hugged the upset and distressed teen, trying to calm her down.

“You’re a feisty one, I see.” the man spoke up, smiling that creepy smile of his.

Toru, Tobio, Kiyoko, Tadashi and Hitoka were standing close together now while the four men in front of them still posed a threat.

Oikawa eyed the store, hoping that by now, Iwa-chan, Maki and Matsun heard the tumult and were already making up a plan to free them. 

“What are you looking at the store for?” the brown-haired man asked, putting the gun to Toru’s face. This was the second time this day that he had a gun so close to his face. He hated it. 

Toru didn’t answer the man; however, so the gruff guy pushed him to the ground.

“What’s your agenda?” Oikawa asked the bald man, trying to pick up a conversation to buy time.

“As I said. We’re looking for two guys.” he answered, “And I think you know more than you let on. So, tell me wh--.”

There was a sudden crush, and the sound of shattering glass caught everyone’s attention. A sea of zombies started crawling out of the broken windows, and they weren’t moving as slowly as some of them usually did. Instead, they were running towards them, groaning, hissing and grinding their jaws together.

Kiyoko used the moment of distraction to strike, breaking one of the men’s arms and successfully disarming the rest.

“Quickly. Inside the van.” She called out, and Toru, Tobio, Tadashi and Hitoka ran inside the van as fast as they could. The raven-haired woman locked up the door behind them, locking the four men that were now trying to also get in, out.

The men cursed loudly, and one of them got caught by the zombies; his screams of agony and pain deafening. The other three man ran towards the car they parked down at the road, and while a few zombies followed them, most of the monsters gathered outside the van, hammering against the walls, the windows and the door, even shaking the entire vehicle. 

Hitoka started screaming, and soon everyone inside the van, except for Kiyoko, was losing their shit, yelling and screaming like crazy. Toru was anxious and scared, but not because of the zombies that were trying to force their way inside to get to their prey, but because he didn’t know if Iwa-chan was okay. He didn’t know if Maki and Matsun were okay. It scared him. It scared him more than the zombie’s teeth, hands and noises ever could.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave comments and kudos if you like! It always motivates me🤗  
> The chapter got a bit longer than I initially planned. I hope it's not too lengthy and long-winded😅  
> Next chapter will be up soon!


	8. Unreasonable

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 8 is finished. I might still change the chapter title, though. Editing always takes me a while because I tend to rewrite almost everything 😅  
> Anyway, enjoy!🤗

-Inside the store-

The three of them stepped out of the kitchen, and out of nowhere, Iwaizumi pushed Matsun and Maki down. He reached up to stop the saloon door from moving, and then he made a motion with his hand that neither Issei nor Takahiro understood.

“What’s this all about?” Maki asked confused, trying to get back up to look outside, but Hajime pulled him down again.

“There are four strangers at the van. They have guns.” Iwaizumi stated in a whisper; voice neutral, yet his concern was visible in the slight twitching of his left eyebrow.

“What about the others?!” Hanamaki asked frantically; his eyes wide and panicked.

“They‘ll be fine. We figure something out.” Matsun said, rubbing the pink-haired man’s back supportively.

“Shit.” Iwaizumi cursed under his breath.

He was worried. There was this sickening feeling building up in his gut; a feeling of guilt and fear. The fear of losing someone dear to him. He shouldn’t have been such an asshole towards Toru.

“What are they doing right now?” Issei asked, pulling Hajime out of his internal struggle.

“They are threatening the others, probably holding them hostage.” he answered.

“Should we draw attention to us, so that they split up?” Maki asked, thinking about how this method always worked in action movies.

“Too dangerous. They could have back-up.” Hajime reasoned.

“Who are these guys anyway,” Matsun commented, carefully peeking over the counter-top. His eyes widened when he recognised one face specifically. “Oh fuck! The world’s clearly too small.” He cursed under his breath.

“What do you mean?” Maki asked in confusion, taking a look himself. When he saw the blonde guy with bandages over his nose and bruises under his eyes, he suddenly knew what Matsun meant. He had to have recognised the van. Maki swallowed hard; the fear clogging up his throat, the nausea making him dizzy.

“What’s going on?” Iwaizumi asked; expectant eyes meeting Matsukawa’s.

“Well, we kinda ran into some guys a few weeks ago, and to put it simply, the run-in wasn’t friendly and ended with one of their mates getting shot.” Issei explained with an uneasy chuckle.

“It wasn’t our fault, though. They shot one another.” Maki piqued in, feeling the need to clarify the matter.

“Why am I not surprised that you two got in trouble with some shady-looking guys?” Hajime deadpanned, running his hand down his face.

The voices outside got louder, and at some point one of them grabbed Toru by the face; the action alone making Iwaizumi’s blood boil. If he weren’t in control of his impulses, then he would have barged out of the shop to beat the fucker up and kick his teeth in.

“We only know one of the four. The blonde one with the botched nose. I wonder if the other two made it…” Matsun wondered, rubbing his chin.

“One of them got shot, you say? My guess is that he didn’t.” Iwaizumi stated. He doubted those guys had the means to treat somebody, and even if they had, he was doubtful that they would waste crucial resources. They looked like the lived by the principal of survival of the fittest.

“Can we focus on our current predicament right now? We need to safe them.” Hanamaki said; nails digging into the skin of his arm.

He was trying to think about something. Anything that could be of help or use. “The storage room.” he exclaimed, and Matsukawa and Iwaizumi looked at him as the sudden realisation hit them like the hitter would the ball.

“Of course. If we create enough ruckus, they will get distracted. Kiyoko will take care of the rest. She was one of the best when it came to close-ranged combat.” Iwaizumi breathed out; hopeful.

“Yeah well, we just need to think of a way to safely open the door to the storage room and to get out of this store without those guys – or the zombies - noticing us.” Matsun commented. “Does anyone have an idea?”

“There’s a ventilation shaft at the ceiling, like those you usually find in warehouses. It’s big enough to fit a person.” Iwaizumi stated.

“No way in hell am I gonna climb into a ventilation shaft.” Maki said determinedly, shaking his head besides making a crossover motion with his hands. It was a definite no.

“We just have to get out the back door unnoticed. We only need to find a way to open the storage room. These guys outside aren’t exactly quiet, so the zombies will respond to the noise, coming from outside.” Explained Matsun quietly.

“I have an idea.” Hajime exclaimed, and Matsukawa and Hanamaki looked at him with a surprised expression, cocking their heads simultaneously to one side while crossing their arms over their chests.

“Really? I thought Toru was the smart one of you two.” Deadpanned Matsun, and Maki nodded in agreement.

“Fuck you.” The soldier glared, and then he crawled through the saloon door. Takahiro shrugged his shoulders and followed, and so did Issei.

In the kitchen, Issei told the other two what he had in mind, but Maki still looked doubtful.

“What if they break right through the storage room door the moment you unlock it?” Asked Hanamaki, nibbling nervously on his fingers.

“Let’s hope it holds long enough for me to get to the back door.” Iwaizumi commented, nonchalant.

“You didn’t really think that through, did you?” Matsun asked with a raised eyebrow, sharing Maki’s concerns.

“Do you have a better idea?” Hajime asked back, shrugging his shoulders. There was no other way.

“Not in this moment, no.” Matsukawa blinked.

“Then we’ll do it my way.” The soldier stated. He knew what he was doing, and he wasn’t going to fail. Failing wasn’t an option. He didn’t do failing.

“Fine. Let’s safe your mistress.” Matsun laughed, and Iwaizumi glared at him, so he added: “and the others.”

“Cut it out, will yeah?” The man was visibly annoyed by Matsun’s constant insinuations.

“It was a joke.” Issei shrugged, and Hajime rolled his eyes.

“Bad timing,” Maki cleared his throat, suppressing the bubble of snickers that wanted to escape him. “Bad timing.” He repeated, patting Matsukawa’s back.

“Let’s get to work then. We’ll put this barrel in front of the door, and then I’ll unlock the safety latch and the locking handle. The barrel will pose as a barrier, so they won’t be able to rush out right away. It’ll leave me enough time to get to the back door where the two of you are.” Iwaizumi explained again, determined to stick to the plan, despite Hanamaki’s skepticism.

“Again. What if the barrel doesn’t keep them inside long enough?” Hanamaki pursed his lips.

“He’s got a point. Are you sure you don’t want me as a backup?” Matsukawa asked. It wouldn’t it be wiser to have a second person there?

“That’s why we opened the ventilation shaft. In case something goes wrong, I’ll just jump up here and climb into the ventilation shaft.” He pointed at the ceiling, and their eyes wandered upwards, following Iwaizumi’s finger.

“I don’t kno—.” Maki started.

“Look, we don’t have much time, and our options are limited.” Iwaizumi interrupted; a long sigh escaping his lips.

“He’s right, Maki. Besides, releasing the zombies in the first place is risky because there’ are a lot of things that could go wrong—“ Matsun said, and Takahiro’s eyes went wide at the sudden realisation.

“You’re not helping! Now I am even more concerned.” The light-haired man said through gritted teeth, grabbing onto Matsukawa’s shirt. He knitted his eyebrows in concern; his eyes showing genuine fear for his friends.

“Everything’s gonna be fine. You worry too much.” Matsun said, taking the other’s face into his hands, soothingly stroking Maki’s cheeks with his fingers.

“Fine.” Hanamaki answered begrudgingly, ready to put his worries aside.

“Let’s hurry then.” Iwaizumi announced. He himself hoped everything would work to their favour. He hoped that this high-risk action would bring no harm to their group, and just get those thugs off their friends’ backs.

Hanamaki and Matsukawa went out the back door after they had helped the soldier put the barrel carefully and quietly in front of the storage room. They were waiting for Iwaizumi’s signal, hoping nothing would go wrong.

Hajime unlocked the latch; the click attracting the attention of the zombies. The groans from inside got louder, and they attacked the window again. The door threatened to give in to the sheer force of the powerful pushes and the violent pounding after Iwaizumi had removed the latch. The sweat gathered on Iwaizumi’s forehead; beads of perspiration running down his face, dropping onto the tiled floor.

He unlocked the second lock, and the zombies pushed the door open, only to be stopped by the barrel at the front. The zombies growled and hissed; their arms flailing through the crack of the door, trying to get a hold on the ravenette. The monsters could clearly sense him, even though he didn’t move a muscle, so Iwaizumi assumed they must smell his sweat.

When he stepped further away from the door, jumping onto the cocking island to climb into the ventilation shaft. He didn’t want to risk endangering Matsun and Maki, and his instincts proved right because the undead pushed the barrel away with little to no effort. The barrel was practically kicked through the room, breaking to bits, even though it was made of solid wood.

The zombies bursted outside like a swarm of aggressive wasps and instantly responded to the noise from outside, straight-forwardly moving and barging into the other room. They could hear the shelves fall to the ground, the shattering of glass, and the breathy growls and groans of the dead.

The van was shaking, and the screaming and crying of the others didn’t cease. Oikawa couldn’t even control his own vocal chords. The zombies were hammering against the door, against the glass of the windows and against the windshield of the vehicle. At some point, he fell to the floor, unable to get up again as the rattling and shaking continued, and the groans, hisses and throaty growls got louder.

When Iwaizumi saw the zombies trying to get into the van, he immediately wanted to move into action, but Matsun stopped him from doing something unreasonable. The dead had bust out of the storage room, breaking through the doors and the windows, leaving only destruction in their wake.

“There are too many. We only have one gun.” Matsukawa said, holding the other man by his shirt.

“What are we supposed to do?” Maki asked with worried eyes, biting down on his fingernails from the stress that the whole situation brought about.

“Fuck it. I am gonna take them down!” Hajime gritted through clenched teeth. The determination on his face was almost uncanny.

“Wait! You can’t just—“ Hanamaki tried,

“Maki, you stay here. I am gonna make sure, this will not be a kamikaze attack.” Matsun said.

“Wha—” Maki started, but Issei just ran after Iwaizumi, leaving him standing there behind the store, alone. “Why’s nobody listening to me?” He mumbled to himself, rolling his eyes.

He wasn’t going to let the other two be so reckless, so he chose to fight too. He rummaged through his bag and found the knife that Matsun had once given him. He fumbled with it, feeling the heavy weight that the blade carried. He had never used a combat knife, but now he had to, despite his inner reservations. The thought of ramming a knife into the head of a former human being scared him. He had to remind himself again and again that it was okay. They were dead, beyond help and with no chance of ever being cured of the disease that had got a hold of their consciousness.

Iwaizumi didn’t think when he put his body into motion. There was no particular thought on his mind while he put the bullets through the zombies’ brains. He only reacted, having one goal: getting his friends out of danger.

He didn’t remember how many he had killed so far. He didn’t want to either because sometimes, killing was burdensome, even if killing was practically your job. The good thing at least was that, those things weren’t human anymore, only a walking, mindless vessel of rotting flesh with an insatiable hunger for food, and humans were the main course. Killing those humans turned monsters was an unavoidable necessity.

There was a sea of zombies in front of him, attacking him, or at least trying to because Iwaizumi was eventually ensuring their demise. He fired the last bullet; the shells falling onto the ground. It’s the only thing his ears could pick up right now. He pulled out his knife, effortlessly destroying the one organ, responsible for the zombies’ behaviour, the vital point that made them vulnerable: the brain.

The wide open area made it easier to navigate, and the fact that the zombies saw more than one target caused them to disperse, so neither Hajime nor Matsun got cornered or attacked by the entire hoard at once. Besides, their focus seemed to be solely on what was inside of the van, since the screaming and crying attracted them, agitating the dead more and more.

From his peripheral, Iwaizumi noticed Kiyoko, climbing through the window from inside the van, gunning down the walking corpses that hammered against the outside of the van. The raven-haired man was determined, though he hoped that the noise of the shots fired wouldn’t attract more of the zombies that roamed the area. They just had to make this quick.

Iwaizumi struck the hissing thing that jumped him with the handle of his knife, hitting it directly at the base of its head, breaking its neck. It was less bloody than smashing the pointy end of the knife through the zombie’s skull, though even that was less bloody than killing a living being.

Hajime had gotten a good feeling for how much force he needed to use, in order to get through the zombies bones, which still demanded more energy than someone would have expected. Horror movies made it look so easy, but cutting through a zombie’s skull wasn’t at all like cutting through butter. It took a lot of force. They also weren’t as slow as depicted in movies and comics; the only thing Hollywood got right, was the mindlessness. It seemed like the only thing that drove them was their instincts.

When Maki arrived at the scene, he watched as Issei smashed the skulls of the zombies with a metal pipe, and Iwaizumi swiftly, and with deadly precision, took down every zombie that was in his line of sight. Kiyoko was on the roof of the van, eliminating zombie after zombie before getting down herself to aid Hajime and Matsun.

Maki had a tight grip on the handle of the knife, gripping it like his life depended on it, which it did actually. He had tunnel vision, and his breathing quickened; chest contracting. The hoard was decimated, shrinking as Matsukawa, Iwaizumi and Kiyoko cut down the walking corpses like they were a sprout of a growing tree.

A zombie was approaching him, and Takahiro’s eyes met the dull and lifeless ones of the dead person. The zombie was tall, his face was sunken in and scrawny, yet his decaying body was bulky and only a part of his skin had a greyish tint to it. Were they still rotting, or was there a process that stopped further decay at some point, Maki wondered, getting curious. They reeked; the smell nauseating. Some of the zombies were in a different stage of decay, but Hanamaki wasn’t sure whether the stage marked the timeline from death to turning or if decaying was continuous. Hanamaki assumed that there had to be a certain mechanism that stopped a continuous decay, since the ones turned earliest would eventually just be bones. This wasn’t the case, though because they hadn’t encountered a walking skeleton yet, nor had they come across a bunch of human remains.

He stared at the zombie that was shakily limping towards him, noticing that when it died, other zombies must have gnawed on his leg.

Maki cocked his head to the side; knife still raised; his mind was caught in a cycle of spiralling thoughts. Eventually, the zombie was so close that the light-haired man got out of his stupor, dropping the knife in the process of evading the monster’s grasp.

The thing’s lifeless eyes suddenly turned predatory, and its movements got faster, more target-oriented. It was scary, sending a paralysing shiver down Maki’s spine. He closed his eyes tightly, his muscles tensed up and his body got rigid as the zombie charged at him. Hanamaki prepared himself, tears pricking at the corners of his eyes, but nothing happened.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?” Asked Matsun, grabbing Maki by the arms, shaking him slightly. Takahiro opened his eyes, feeling relieved, yet guilty when he saw Matsun’s panicked expression.

The zombie was lying on the ground; half of its skull missing, smashed in and sticking to the hot asphalt. Maki, like a loser, stood there frozen in place. Yes, what was he doing?!

“I told you to wait. God, fuck. Don’t ever do that again!” Matsun’s grip got bruising, and his face more desperate. He’d barely seen Issei so emotional. Takahiro was used to seeing a composed and neutral-looking Matsun.

“‘m sorry.” Maki mumbled, biting down on his lower lip.

“You scared me.” The black-haired man whispered, pulling the smaller one into a bone-rushing hug. “You scared me.” He whispered again, burying his face into Maki’s neck.

Hanamaki returned the gesture, firmly and with desperation holding onto Matsun. He didn’t know why the zombie made him lose control over the functions of his body. He didn’t know why getting a closer look at those things inhibited his flight instinct. He had no explanation for that, other than it having been an overly emotional response, caused by his fear of zombies.

Toru had been lying on the floor, holding Tobio pressed against his chest to calm the frightened boy down with words of encouragement and false optimism, mumbling and whispering that everything was going to be okay; The standard thing to say if something went downhill.

The brunette’s ears had perked up when the sound of gunshots echoed through the air, and upon hearing the familiar voices, the knot in his chest untangled itself again, dissolving into a feeling of utter and pure relief.

When the zombies outside were finally gone, and the moaning, groaning and the continuous hammering against the van disappeared, only the sniffling and crying sounds of those inside remained. Toru didn’t notice that he had started crying, so he wiped the wet streaks on his face away, getting up from the floor.

Hajime’s clothes and hands were bloody, and there were blood splatters on his face. He was breathing hard, wiping the sweat from his forehead with the back of his wrist. Killing the zombies had been straining, and he was slowly feeling the exhaustion in his bones because of the sudden decrease in the amount of adrenaline in his system.

They had to hurry; however, because a part of the zombie hoard that chose to follow the three strangers was now gathering, attracted by the noise they had made.

Hajime saw a perplexed Oikawa stumble out of the van; his feet unsteady, but when his eyes fell on the soldier, his face contorted into an expression of desperation, relief and happiness. The brunette ran towards him, throwing his arms around Iwaizumi’s neck, whispering inaudible things.

“I am so glad you’re okay.” Hajime then said with a deep sigh; his voice sounding strange.

“I thought… I thought something happened to you. I thought you might have died.” Oikawa sighed; his voice strained and heavy.

“As if a bunch of walking corpses would be able to kill me.” Iwaizumi commented with a dismissive wave of his hand.

“Oho, what’s up with that smug answer.” Matsun joined the conversation, popping up behind the other two men, ever so curious about any interaction Oikawa and Iwaizumi had. He and Maki had a bet going, and the dark-haired man wanted to win said bet.

“Iwaizumi is allowed to be smug because he looked cool fighting off the zombies.” Maki said, crossing his arms over his chest, nodding curtly.

“Did I not look cool?” Asked Matsun with a pout on his lips, staring expectantly at Hanamaki.

“You’re cool 24/7. That doesn’t count.” The smaller man answered with a grin.

“Nice safe.” Matsun smiled, then he turned his attention towards Oikawa. “Hajime was right when he said you were an ugly crier.”

“Hey, at least I wasn’t screaming like crazy.” Toru defended with a shrug of his shoulders, pointing at the two teenagers.

“Guys? We should take our leave. Now.” Kiyoko interrupted, pointing at several zombies coming their way. She had just managed to calm Yamaguchi and Yacht down, she didn’t want them to start crying again because of a second attack.

**00000**

They drove onto the road, barely escaping the zombies, but it wasn’t long after Hitoka exclaimed in a scared voice that a dark SUV was trailing behind them.

“These guys aren’t going to give up easily.” Muttered Iwaizumi, stepping onto the gas pedal with more force, causing the engine to blare.

“They are right behind us!” Exclaimed Toru panicky.

“What do they want from us?!” Tadashi yelped, just as panicked if not more.

“That, I might be able to explain.” Informed Matsun, and all eyes, but Maki’s and Iwaizumi’s were on him. “Maki and I pissed some people off. They probably recognised the van.”

“Yes, they told us they were looking for two people that matched exactly your descriptions.” Kiyoko piqued in.

“But they said you murdered their frien—“ Yamaguchi added, but Maki cut in right there.

“That’s not true! If anything, they killed one another because of their stupidity.”

“I knew that was bullshit.” Oikawa huffed with a roll of his eyes. He knew from the very start that those guys were blowing things out of proportion, telling a blatant lie.

“Shit. Can’t you speed up?!” Matsun asked Iwaizumi.

“I can’t go faster. That’s all that shitty van got!” They were heavily loaded, and there were 7 and ½ people in the van. Tobio was a child. His body weight wouldn’t count as one person.

“Waaahh!!”

The SVU rammed against their left side, trying to cause Iwaizumi to lose control over the vehicle.

“Are they crazy?!!” Oikawa exclaimed as the impact made him fly forward in his seat.

“Couldn’t you have pissed off a group of priests?! The most they could have done is trying to kill us with worthless prayers.” The brunette said.

“We didn’t ask about their occupation. We didn’t know we’d run into them again.” Maki answered.

Who would have thought that those guys would hold a grudge for so long? He didn’t even think they made it, and two of them obviously didn’t, which meant that blonde idiot was to blame because he was spreading lies.

“I am scared!” Hitoka exclaimed, still shaken from the earlier incident.

The SUV rammed into them again, rapidly and with full force, making dents into the van, causing several items to fall onto the floor. The tyres shrieked, and Hajime had difficulties keeping the car on the road. He couldn’t escape them with speed, so he had to find another way to shake the attackers off.

Iwaizumi turned the steering wheel to the left side, ramming the SVU as well. “Fuck you!” He yelled, and the van swung out. “You better buckle up guys. We’re getting serious here!” The black-haired soldier shouted, suddenly hitting the breaks hard.

The abrupt stopped, threw the occupants forward, and Iwaizumi put the car into reverse as he got the driver of the SUV by surprise.

“Do you even know where you are going?!” Toru asked, not courageous enough to turn his head around and look.

“They’re still after us!” Yachi shrieked, covering her eyes with her hands. However, not seeing didn’t really make things better; it made things even worse. It was like closing your eyes while sitting in a chain carousel.

“Obviously.” Matsun commented.

“We’re gonna die!” Yamaguchi cried, holding onto the cushion of the seat with desperation.

“Shut up freckles, your pessimism is scaring Tobio-chan!” Oikawa glared. The panic and frenzy inside the van frightened the child. The brunette didn’t want him to experience even more trauma.

Tobio was sitting in the self-made and rather improvised-looking kiddy seat, seat belt safely secured around him. His tiny hand was holding Toru’s, and his fingernails, that Oikawa noticed needed to be cut, were digging into his skin, scratching him. He wasn’t crying; however, and neither was he screaming.

“What are you doing now?!” Maki giggled. He knew that now wasn’t the time to laugh, but he was panicking, and sometimes when he was in in a panic, he started giggling uncontrollably.

“Why are you laughing?” Hitoka asked, and Maki looked at her; tears pricking his eyes, then he answered: “Because I am panicking.”

“Guys, you better hang on!” Shouted Iwaizumi, still trying to evade the assassination.

“Oh dear mother…!!” Matsun breathed out.

Iwaizumi hit the brakes again, speeding right into the direction of the oncoming SUV. He drew closer and closer, focusing solely on the right timing before he turned on the full-beam headlights.

Matsun closed his eyes as he realised what Iwaizumi was planning to do and saw the approaching SUV. He clinched onto Maki, hugging him tightly and burying his face into his pinkish-coloured hair. It smelled of shampoo and Maki; a scent that managed to calm him every time he felt antsy and nervous inside.

The vehicle suddenly swung out sharply to the side; the violent tilt causing Maki to fall hard against Matsun’s side. Issei got pressed against the window, despite the security of the seatbelt. He felt Hanamaki’s elbow bore into his ribs, and his head banged against the glass, making him dizzy.

Then, there was no swinging or uncontrolled hits against the van anymore, so he opened his eyes again. “Did we… shake them off?” The raven-haired man asked curiously.

“I hope so—“ another impact pushed them forward, disrupting the straight line they were driving.

“They sure are persistent.” Maki commented as he turned around, and the continuous assault caused another eruption of panic inside the van.

“These fuckers are pissing me off.” Grumbled Iwaizumi.

There was an upcoming intersection about two kilometres away according to the street sign; however, they didn’t even make it that far because Hajime lost control over the van after the vehicle of their pursuers rammed right into the left rear tyre, causing it to flatten suddenly. Everyone inside screamed, holding onto each other or grabbing onto whatever they could find. The last thing Matsun heard before the van crashed right into the bushes of the woods was Iwaizumi cursing: “Oh fuck!!”

The van came to a halt several metres inside the woods, having a frontal crash with a tree. The entire right side of the motor home was smashed in, and luckily for Hajime, the impact with the tree was very much only on the right side. He had been able to slow the van down before the crash, so that they wouldn’t drive into the bushes with 120 km/h. Getting the airbag right into the face did still hurt, though.

Matsun’s head hurt, and his vision was blurry when he came back to his senses. He was thrown against the seatbelt, which held him back and kept him secured in his seat. He had expected the collision, yet he hit his head again, anyway. His eyes slowly adjusted to the situation, seeing splitters of glass on the ground and the indented metal of the vehicle. The windscreen was heavily damaged; thousands of cracks, tears and splits adorning the glass’s surface. The windows on the left and right side of the van were broken, whereas some withstood the impact. The shelves and cupboards were thrown open, and the contents were spilled all over the floor and seats. It was a mess.

He could barely remember anything that happened because it happened too fast. Issei’s ears were ringing; the tinnitus deafening. The only positive thing was that the bursting tyre of the van caused their assailants to lose control of their own vehicle, prompting into a second car crash, which meant that, as of right now, both parties were in the same predicament.

The black-haired male heard Maki groan beside him, and he seemed unharmed, only a few scratches gracing his face.

There were coughs and groans resonating from across the small space inside the vehicle, then he heard Oikawa asked in a croaked voice: “Is everyone alright?”

There were some more coughs and moans, but it seemed like everyone was fine. It was a good thing that everyone had strapped on their safety belts because those things saved lives. They were one of humanity creates inventions, right after the internet.

“You’re bleeding Issei.” Maki said, touching Matsukawa’s forehead slightly.

“I am fine.” Matsun said, though his head was still killing him. It felt like his head was split in two; a throbbing feeling that put pressure especially on the inside of his eyeballs. He might even have a slight concussion.

“Let’s get out of here.” Iwaizumi groaned, making his way to the others, urging them to get moving. The soldier had a split lip, several cuts and bruises and a laceration on his head.

“My back hurts.” Toru complained, and Matsun was relieved to hear the brunette complaining because it meant he was fine.

**00000**

“Are you sure you’re not thirsty Iwa-chan?” Oikawa asked the black-haired soldier for the umpteenth time.

“I told you I am fine. You’re the one who is giving me a major headache right now.” Iwaizumi sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“But you don’t look fine.” The brunette sulked, pushing the cool bottle onto the other male’s face to alleviate the swelling.

“You’re annoying.” Iwaizumi grumbled, but he didn’t push Toru away.

They gathered the most essential things; they had been able to quickly find in the chaos. It wasn’t safe there after all, since the attackers could still be somewhere in the area.

Hanamaki looked around, scanning every crooked tree, every discolouration in close proximity and reacting to every rustling of leaves and breaking of twigs.

“What do you think happened to them?” Oikawa asked, startling Hanamaki with his sudden appearance right beside him.

He shrieked, clutching his chest while looking at the brunette with wide eyes: “Don’t do this.” Maki grumbled, suddenly feeling out of breath.

“Do what?” Toru asked, genuinely clueless what the other male was talking about.

“You know that Batman-thing.” Deadpanned Maki, still startled.

“Batman-thing?” Oikawa cocked his head to the side in confusion. He had scratches on his face, and a larger oval-shaped bruise below his arm from his elbow to his wrist.

“Appearing out of nowhere; The weird ability to silently sneak up on people.” Explained the light-haired man with a sigh.

“Thank you.” Oikawa said in recognition, even though it wasn’t meant as a compliment. “I saw the jeep do a flip, so I was wondering...” the brunette continued with a thoughtful expression and an infinitesimal pause. “Well, serves them right, actually. They provoked the accident in the first place.”

“Yeah.” Nodded Takahiro. He wondered about how deep the hatred had to run, for someone to go to such lengths for unjustified revenge.

For them; however, the keen desire for retribution wasn’t unfounded and definitely not unjustified. They were out for blood, and it scared Hanamaki because he wasn’t sure if those hostile strangers would even listen to anything, Matsun and he had to say. He wasn’t sure whether their attackers would believe the truth, and neither was he eager to test it. They had more likely adapted to their own flawed version of the truth to warrant their animosity and actions of pure violence. Those people were willing to hurt those who hadn’t been involved; those who were innocent. They even lost one of their own, inclined to believe yet again that it was someone else’s fault.

Maki looked at the trail of destruction the van left behind when Iwaizumi drove it into the bushes. They came to a stop about 50 to 60 metres inside the woods, mostly encountering a maze of undergrowth and brushwood, until they had a frontal impact with a tree. The van had lost both rear-vision mirrors, and there was a long and wide scrape on either side of the van; a damage caused by scratching the bark of the trees. The trees, they luckily missed, helped slow the vehicle down, but the partially head-on collision with the last one ripped off and smashed the right side of the van like a hammer would smash a tomato. That dent was beyond repair. They had to go through a broken window to get outside. 

The light-haired man walked towards Matsun and the rest of the group who had gathered up at one spot, laying his head on the taller one’s shoulder.

“Are you sure you’re alright? Are you still feeling dizzy? You’re not nauseous, are you?” Maki asked rapidly, and Matsun had trouble keeping up with this onslaught of questions.

“I am fine.” He said, feeling sore all over.

“Tell me if you feel sick. You might have a slight concussion.” Maki narrowed his eyes, unsure whether Issei’s ‘I am fine’ was just the typical answer that everyone gave when asked if they were fine, even if they weren’t fine at all.

“I promise.” The raven-haired man smiled, “Don’t looked at me like this. I am truly fine.” Matsun squeezed Maki’s cheeks, but the silly action didn’t ease Hanamaki’s concerns.

“We should go. This area is too dangerous.” Kiyoko informed strapping up her backpack. Her face was still as beautiful as ever, despite the bruises and the bust lip.

Hitoka was clinching onto her for dear life, unwilling to let go of the soldier. The blonde seemed fine physically because the only thing she had was a minor scratch on her cheek.

“Let’s not waste any time then.” Iwaizumi announced in agreement.

Maki was a little worried about him, and Oikawa had been fussing over the male soldier like he had obtained a life-threatening wound to the head. The point was, he didn’t look good, though he was resistant to let Maki examine his injuries.

The pink-haired man would not let him off easily, though. The moment, they found a place to rest, he’d force Hajime to have his wounds treated, whether or not the ravenette wanted it.

A rustling sound startled the group, and when a bald man with a gun in his hand stepped into their line of vision, everyone went rigid; senses on high alert. They lifted their arms in surrender to show that they, themselves, weren’t armed.

“There you are, you motherfuckers!” Shouted the obviously injured stranger, pointing his gun directly at Matsun and Maki.

“You thought *cough* you would get away with *cough* it, but here we are.” He said, a tint of smugness lacing his rough and wheezing voice.

The guy could barely stand up straight. He had a severe-looking injury to the side of his head, and he was bleeding. His left arm was bust; the bone poking out of the open fracture. His posture was scrunched, and he was wiping back and forth; legs shaky and clothes completely torn and smeared with blood. In his face, thighs and arms, stuck splitters of glass shards. All in all, he desperately needed medical attention. Maki started to feel sorry for him because he looked pitiful and desperate.

Yamaguchi and Yachi hid behind Kiyoko while Oikawa and Tobio clinched onto Iwaizumi.

The fact that he was yet again face to face with a loaded gun, scared the hell out of Maki. He hated guns, knives and other potentially fatal weapons that were pointed at him. But who didn’t?

“Do you know why I am after you?” The tall, bulky man questioned; a look of pure craziness and unashamed hunger for blood on his face. It also didn’t help his case that he was covered in blood: he looked like a maniac that had completely lost all connection to reality; a feral animal that was ready to strike.

“Should we?” Matsun asked with an unmoving poker face. Maki held his breath, pinching Issei’s arm hard, followed by a subtle glare that said ‘Shut up! This is not the time to be snappy’

The nonchalant answer further infuriated the stranger, and his arm shook; finger moving to the trigger. “Try again!!” The brunette yelled angrily.

“Look, baldy. I don’t know what Blondie told you, but we didn’t do anything that would justify being chased down and forced off the road. Your guys killed one another because they weren’t the brightest, but I can clearly see why you would group with them: You’re just as stupi—“ Matsun couldn’t finish because the man pulled the trigger; the bullet scratching the side of the raven-haired man’s head.

Maki yelped, helping his friend up again as he fell down on his butt. Every shred of sympathy, Takahiro had had for the injured individual in front of them, vanished instantly and left was a feeling of resentment and agitation. He was also angry at Matsun for being a sarcastic asshole in a situation that required tact and well-timed empathy.

Iwaizumi stepped forward on instinct, but the stranger pointed the gun at the soldier, motioning for him to stay back. Toru was hugging Tobio, clenching his jaw in shock and anger.

“The next one will hit, so watch your dirty trap!” The bald man threatened; a devious grin spreading over his face.

“I might as well restart your memory before I kill you.” He started, “You murdered two of my men in cold blood, making you ultimately responsible for the death of my other companions. I’ll make you pay for it.”

“What kind of logic is that? We didn’t kill anyone!” Maki bursted out, supporting Matsun, who was pressing his hand to the side of his head.

“Just confess to your sins. You’re gonna die, anyway.” The man laughed, coughing and wheezing immediately. Then he spit out blood; the red liquid running down the brunette’s lips and chin, splattering onto the dark rotten leaves on the ground.

“I’ll kill your friend first and then I’ll kill you,” he pointed at Maki, “you, that asshole who rammed us off the road, the chick who hit me, and then the little kid, whose been giving me that nasty look. And lastly, I’ll kill the freckled one.” He motioned his finger at Oikawa, then Iwaizumi, Kiyoko, Tobio and Tadashi.

His eyes lingered at Hitoka, and he licked his lips: “Then the two of us will have a little fun. Maybe I’ll keep you alive. You’re cute after all.”

Yachi’s face contorted into one of fear and disgust; her lips trembling when she remembered the guy’s grabby hands touching her. The sheer repulsion and aversion was also visible on Kiyoko’s and Toru’s faces and Iwaizumi looked angry and ready to strike.

The stranger’s words shocked Maki, and he concluded that the bald man was a disgusting pervert who couldn’t be reasoned with. The tall man didn’t even realise that he was severely injured. He was wheezing and coughing and from the shaking of his arm, in which he held the weapon, he was about to topple over.

“He said they didn’t kill your friends, but you probably just kill for the thrill of it. Your a self-serving asshole, hiding your true motive behind a self-fabricated lie to justify your actions. Iwa-chan didn’t push you off the road. It was you!” Oikawa seethed, unable to hold himself back.

The bald stranger looked at Toru, and then he laughed, pointing the weapon at Oikawa instead: “I’ve changed my mind. I am gonna kill you first because your attitude pissed me off from the start.”

Toru didn’t appear to be scared. He just looked angry, actively glaring at the guy. Maki swallowed the lump in his throat, closely watching the stranger. The man’s breathing was laboured and uneven, and since he had just coughed up blood, there might be internal injuries as well. How the man could walk and fire a gun with such precision was beyond Maki’s understanding.

It seemed that the guy’s hatred and desire to avenge his companions was probably the fuel that kept him going. That or his hurt pride. The bald man gave off the psychopath-wipe, after all. Just his manic grin was nightmare inducing. However, Hanamaki doubted the man would hold out any longer. He had already lowered the gun a little, and he leaned against a round tree stump behind him for leverage.

“I won’t let you anywhere near Hitoka.” Stated Kiyoko with a subliminal threat in the tone of her voice. She still stood protectively in front of the blonde girl and the freckled boy, and Maki had never seen the dark-haired woman give off such a scary aura.

“Tzz, you bitch won’t be —“ and as if on cue, the bald stranger keeled over, hitting the ground face first, letting go of the gun in the process.

The guy was lying on the ground; arms spread out. The laboured puffs of breathing in and out stopped the second he hit the ground with a dull thud. There was an awfully suffocating silence surrounding the group, and for a moment the woods were dipped in a quietness that was unusual for this time of the day; as if the constant spin of the earth got disturbed, resulting in a short halt, only to continue its regular rotation a millisecond later.

Maki wanted to walk over there to check the guy’s pulse, to see if he was still alive, but Iwaizumi stopped him, shaking his head.

“He won’t make it, anyway.” Hajime told him, glimpsing at the dying man on the ground: “Besides, some people are beyond saving, and sometimes, we are allowed to be merciless and indifferent towards those who don’t deserve compassion. That guy,” The soldier pointed at the bald guy, they didn’t even know the name of, “is one of those cases.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave comments and kudos. I am always open to critique!☺️
> 
> Next chapter will be up within the next 2 weeks. I always try to meet deadlines. I hope I’ll have the upcoming chapter finished sooner than the last.
> 
> Have a nice evening folks!!🥰


	9. Safety?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 9 is finally done! 🥳 Enjoy!

The monsoon-like rain was pouring down on them, showing how merciless the force of nature could be at the most inconvenient moments. It was dark outside, and they had no flashlight or something similar that could provide a speck of light. Only the occasional loud rumble of thunder and the lighting that accompanied it, lightened up the darkness that lay ahead of them.

Akaashi couldn’t see nor hear anything, but the roaring thunder and the heavy and strong droplets of rain hitting the leaves of the trees, the muddy and moist ground, and his back, drenching his clothes and sneakers.

It probably wasn’t the best idea to walk around at night in the rain, where they were practically blind and deaf, but they had no choice. They had to get a proper head-start in case they were being followed. It had been four days, and they had yet to arrive at the holiday home Yaku had told them about, though they might have gotten lost a few times.

Keiji could feel Bokuto’s grip on his hand tighten, probably in fear of losing him during the down-pour. His fingers were cold, but so were Akaashi’s.

The ravenette was starting to feel the effects the ruthless weather conditions had on his body, since he was involuntary shivering from the cold. The slight breeze wasn’t helping either. It was just making the weather feel more brutal.

“We’re almost there.” Yaku yelled, so the thunder drowned out his voice almost entirely, making it hard to understand him.

“What did you say?” Kotarou’s characteristically loud voice echoed through the woods.

“You need to speak louder from down there, so people with an average height can hear you.” Kuro commented mockingly, which earned him a well-deserved punch in the guts.

“Shut up!” Morisuke shouted angrily.

Kuro had been making jokes about Yaku’s height — or the lack there off — nonstop which didn’t sit well with Morisuke. Akaashi’s figured that it was a sensitive subject, but Kuro didn’t seem to care. He’d always been a sarcastic asshole, after all.

“Why are tiny people always so violent? Do you have to compensate your lack of height with a bad temper?” Heaved the raven-haired man, holding his stomach.

Bokuto chuckled at that, but Keiji pinched his side as a warning.

“We’re here.” Yaku suddenly said as he stepped into a broad clearing. Despite the darkness of the night, the silhouette of the house was clearly visible. It was directly in front of a lake that could be accessed through a dock, constructed of wide wooden planks.

Morisuke walked ahead, and Akaashi and the rest followed. He unlocked the door, and they entered the house. The lights still worked to their surprise, and the place looked well-maintained, even though it had been empty for at least three months, maybe more. There were thick layers of dusts everywhere, which caused Keiji to sneeze violently.

“This house is run by a gas generator and heated by wood fuel, so in order to get it warm and cosy in here we need to start the oven. There are three bedrooms and two bathrooms: one is upstairs and the other one is over here.” Yaku explained, pointing at the fireplace, then the stairs and the door next to them.

The house itself wasn’t very big, but it was spacious enough to host at least five to six people. The ground floor was one big room, containing an open kitchen and the living room. The fact that this place had electricity was a blessing, though the moment they ran out of gas, this blessing would be over.

You could directly look at the lake from the large wall-sized window in the kitchen area. The way the stars sparkled their light onto the surface of the lake was mesmerisingly beautiful. For a moment, it made Keiji forget what was happening in the outside world because in that very moment, they could very much just be spending a pleasant weekend in the woods. As friends.

For a moment, Akaashi wanted to pretend that the past months didn’t happen, pretend that everything was alright. But even though dwelling in ignorance and denial could be blissful at times such as these, it wasn’t really going to change anything. The world would still be ruthless, after all and survival of the fittest had just become the new order; an order that Keiji didn’t really wanted to abide by, though he might not have any other choice than to actually play by the rules of the game.

“We should get out of our wet clothes.” Bokuto said, already stripping before finishing the sentence. “Do you have any spare clothes here?” The white-haired man’s clear voice tore Akaashi out of his spiral of thoughts.

“Yeah, upstairs in the drawers. There must be some spare clothes.” Yaku answered, looking for towels.

“Are you sure Mori’s clothes are going to fi— ouch!” Kuro got hit by a towel. Hard.

“Don’t you dare finish that sentence.” Glared the smaller man.

“Fine. I am not gonna make any comments about your height anymore. I promise.” Tesurou nodded, offering the smaller some kind of truce.

“You better do...” Yaku narrowed his eyes at the other, not trusting his words.

He knew Kuro didn’t mean any harm, but the teasing got on his nerves because all his life, he had been made fun of because of his small stature. He was a guy, and he barely reached 5 ft 3 inches. The first thing people seemed to notice about him was how ‘tiny’ he was, and it pissed him off. It made him insecure and self-conscious. Kuro and Bokuto towered over him, and Akaashi was of an average height for a guy. Yaku envied tall people because he wanted to be taller, too. He wanted to reach the top drawer or shelve without having to step on a fucking chair, and he wanted people to stop pointing out that he was small. He knew that. He didn’t need people to remind him of that fact every time they saw him. It was infuriating.

“Are you two done now? It’s getting rather exhausting, listening to you fight all the time.” Akaashi sighed, drying himself off and making his way upstairs where Bokuto almost ran him over.

“Here.” He pushed the dry and clean clothes, a pair of baggy pants and a shirt into his hands.

“Ngh thanks.” Keiji quivered, taking the clothes gratefully.

“Hey Tesu! Catch!” He shouted throwing a pair of jeans right into Kuro’s face. “I said catch.”

“How am I supposed to catch it when you throw it into my face before warning me?” Kuro rubbed his face, tears pricking at the corner of his eyes, because of the hard impact.

“Sorry.” Bokuto snorted, and Akaashi smiled.

Bokuto’s bright and radiant personality always cheered him up, even at the darkest of times because Akaashi was a realist, tending to be quite pessimistic about things while Bokuto was his direct counterpart: he was an idealist and a hopelessly optimistic.

“Serves you right.” Morisuke huffed, crunching up his nose.

The group was sitting around the fireplace, cuddled up in blankets. The lights were out and only the flickering flame of the fire served as a light, keeping them warm at the same time.

“How long are we planning on staying here?” Akaashi asked, sipping on his hot chocolate. You wouldn’t know how much you missed something that ordinary until you hadn’t had it for a long time.

Bokuto stopped shovelling down his food and looked at his fiancé, confused: “Why’d you want to leave already? We’ve only just arrived.”

“He’s right. We should settle down first, get some rest, and worry about all this apocalyptic chaos later.” Kuro leaned back, stretching his tired muscles. He had heavy bags under his eyes, a clear indicator of heavy sleep deprivation.

“I am just saying.. We can’t stay here forever, so it might be beneficial for us to actually plan ahead.” Akaashi answered. He couldn’t just settle down like that. His brain could shut down. He was in a constant state of profound unsettlement. He was worried and somewhat scared that the second they settled down, something bad was going to happen and take their sanctuary away.

“Let’s get a good night’s rest at first. Let’s think about whatever we’re going to do when our minds are clear and not exhausted.” Yaku yawned, putting his empty bowl aside. He turned around and put his head to rest on the pillow.

No matter how often Akaashi closed his eyes, he just couldn’t fall asleep. He fell into a slight slumber that wasn’t really restful, only to lay wide awake moments later while the rest were sleeping peacefully like they were just having an ordinary slumber party.

“Can’t sleep?” Bokuto whispered with a yawn, pulling Akaashi closer against his chest; his hands resting at the small of the ravenette’s back. His voice sounded raspy.

“My mind just won’t shut down. I am scared Kou.” Keiji whispered back. His eyes felt heavy, but despite feeling exhausted and tired, sleep just wouldn’t come.

Bokuto covered Akaashi’s eyes with his hand, and the latter was confused for a moment: “Just sleep. You don’t need to be scared. I’ll always be with you.” Kotarou said, and Akaashi knew he was close, since he could feel Bokuto’s hot breath on his cheeks.

“Don’t make promises that you can’t keep.” Keiji muttered, blinking through the cracks of his fiancé’s fingers. The light of the flickering and cracking flames engulfed one side of Akaashi’s face in a shallow glow, and he looked skinnier than he had a few weeks ago.

“I am not planning on breaking any of the promises I make, Keiji. If you think too much about what the future might hold, you’ll go crazy, eventually. Let’s just live in the here and now, think about the present and worry about the future later.” Bokuto’s hand was still covering Akaashi’s eyes, but his low voice made him feel drowsy.

The smaller man bit his lower lip and touched the warm and strong hand over his eyes, indicating for the other to remove it. They made eye contact, looking at each other for a long moment before Akaashi put his head on Bokuto’s chest. An exhausted sigh escaped his lips as he eyes fell shut, and he listened to the rhythmically and melodically beating heart lying hidden behind the ribcage of the one person he cherished the most.

  
**00000**

A few days later, the group was still residing in the house after deciding that it would be best to stay for a while to replenish their energy. The journey had been quite draining, but it had been worth it because Akaashi wouldn’t have been able to stand living in the camp under such poor conditions any longer. Sickness would have spread eventually, which would have led to people dying of infections, which in turn would have caused them to turn. Staying in the camp just wouldn’t have been a good idea. Besides, the people in control were shit heads.

“We’re out of gas.” Kuro stated randomly while playing cards with Bokuto and Yaku.

“How far is the next village?” Akaashi asked, his head resting on Bokuto’s shoulder.

“About half an hour by car.” Yaku answered, staring at the deck in his hand.

“We could explore the area while we’re at it.” Bokuto skimmed in.

“So…is there a car?” Kuro asked, not looking up.

“In the barn behind the house.” Yaku answered, still too focused on the game.

“Well, then let’s go. It’s noon, so we should get going, so that we’re back before the sun sets.” Akaashi said, getting up from the chair next to Bokuto.

“Alright. Let’s get some gas and maybe some medication, though I doubt that there’s anything left in the local pharmacy.” Yaku added, standing up as well.

Yaku was right; There was a car in the barn, though it looked like it was about to fall apart. The rust was eating away the varnish, and the rare light was broken and so was one of the wing mirrors.

“This thing looks like a dumpster.” Bokuto commented, and Kuro nodded in agreement.

“He is right. Does this thing you call car even start?” Tesu asked sceptically.

“Do you wanna walk? No? Then bear with it. It works just fine.” Yaku grumbled, though he couldn’t deny that the old car was rusty.

“I hope this thing passed the MOT.” Akaashi said, but Yaku’s silence wasn’t a good sigh, “don’t tell me. I’ll just assume it did.” The rave-haired male got into the passenger seat and buckled up.

“I am driving!” Bokuto yelled loudly, but Kuro and Akaashi objected immediately.

“NO!” Both men interjected simultaneously, eyes wide.

Bokuto should not be allowed behind any kind of vehicle. Sometimes, they wondered how the dual-haired man got his driving license. Maybe the examiner hadn’t been in a right state of mind as he handed over that license. Bokuto drove probably as bad as Spongebob.

“Hmpf, fine.” Kotarou huffed, crossing his arms over his chest and cocking his head to the side. He was clearly sulking.

“You know Bo, we wanna come out alive, so I am driving.” Kuro shrugged, getting into the driver’s seat.

When everyone was in the car and strapped to the seat, Kuro started the engine.

“Don’t take it personally, Kou.” Akaashi smiled as he turned around. Bokuto was still pouting, but the other man’s words lightened him up a little.

“I am not.” Muttered Kotarou, looking out of the window. He wasn’t that bad of a driver than Keiji and Kuro made him out to be.

They entered the main road after a short drive through the woods, and the area appeared ghostly empty. There was nothing. No oncoming cars, no birds in the sky and no animal trying to cross the street. The weather was still brutal. After two days of heavy rain, the sun was burning down again, and the temperature was rising to at least 30 degrees or higher. The house had air-conditioning, and the trees had provided shelter from the sun, but inside the car on the open road, it felt like they were inside an oven.

Half an hour later, they arrived at the nearby village, and upon looking outside the windows, they could already see several zombies aimlessly crawling, stumbling and wandering around, making these signature noises of theirs. It was chilling because the buzzing engine of the car caught the attention of the zombies. They were just a handful, but even a handful could be deadly.

“They are coming after us.” Yaku pointed out the obvious; his voice sounded alarmed.

“There aren’t so many, so we should easily be able to deal with them.” Kuro answered, his eyes observing and scanning the area.

“Do you think we’ll meet other survivors?” Bokuto asked curiously, watching the zombies helpless attempt to catch up with them.

Sometimes he couldn’t help, but feel pity for them. He knew they were dead, mindless monsters that fed on the living. At least that was what Keiji had told him. He could barely wrap his mind around it at first, but after witnessing how people brutally got torn apart, there was nothing that needed to be understood. It was how it was, and for now nothing was going to change in all likelihood.

“I doubt we will. Most have already been evacuated, so…” Akaashi stated.

Kuro parked the car behind the next building, and the four men got out; weapons at hand. The surrounding area was quiet and serene, almost too calm. They could hear only the occasional moaning and wheezing of a zombie. It disrupted the peaceful-looking atmosphere, making the dangerously charged reality more profound.

“Stay on alert. We don’t know the area.” Kuro said; his voice was carried through the air in a low whisper.

“Over there.” Bokuto stated, pointing the bat at the three zombies coming their way.

“Let’s take care of that quickly.” Bokuto nodded and followed Kuro. Akaashi kept observing their surroundings. There was a chill running down his spine from the eerie feeling that they weren’t alone, and the ravenette wasn’t talking about the company the zombies provided them with.

While Bokuto and Kuro cracked the skulls of the group of zombies open, Akaashi and Yaku went into the house. The door wasn’t locked, and nothing seemed out of place. They carefully explored the abandoned home, tiptoeing their way around the living room area.

In the hallway, Keiji had noticed several pairs of shoes in various sizes lying around, so he assumed it was a family home. The picture he came across in the living room confirmed his first assertion. The picture was standing on a cupboard next to the television along with several other pictures of happy family gatherings. The frame of the picture Akaashi was holding in his hands, was made of glass, containing glitter. It was cute.

He looked at the smiling people in the photo: a ginger-haired boy, holding his younger sister’s hand and the parents. They were standing in the garden, posing for the picture. Their smiles were broad, and it was clear just by looking at it that a professional took the photograph. The two siblings who were standing right next to each other were neatly dressed in a nice suit and a long dress. The middle-aged woman wore an equally nice dress of red colour that suited her blonde hair perfectly. Her husband – given that both of them wore a ring on their ring finger – wore a dark-blue suit with a white tuxedo.

Akaashi smiled at the picture. He could hear the photographer’s instructions in his ear: ‘act naturally’, ‘pretend like I am not even here’, ‘come on little man, smile a little more and lean forward just a little’. It made him remember the first professionally taken picture of his family. He was ten years old, and his mother wanted everything to be perfect.

Keiji looked up and scanned the living room area. It was like he could see them sitting at the table, chatting widely and animatedly. For a second, he thought the voices were real.

The kitchen table was laid for breakfast. There were glasses of once-fresh orange juice and milk along with various breads and the paper from two months ago; a breakfast of which the flies and insects had already gotten their share. Everything could have been so normal if it hadn’t been for the slight smell of decomposing food and the mould covering it. The family had to have left the house in a hurry, not even finishing their breakfast.

“Found anything useful?” Bokuto asked from behind him, and Akaashi turned around, suddenly finding himself pulled out of his thoughts.

“Not yet.” Keiji answered.

“What are you looking at?” He asked, and smaller man showed him the picture.

“I wonder where they are now.” The other pondered; his expression uncharacteristically solemn.

“I found a torch!” Yaku exclaimed randomly, and Akaashi put the picture back in place.

The group browsed through the house, and Keiji felt like some low-life bulgar while opening every cupboard and looking in every corner for things that could be of any use or worth. If the situation had been different, if they hadn’t found themselves amid an apocalypse, then what they were doing right now was robbing an unsuspecting family of their belongings. If the situation had been different, one of the family members might have just come home, oblivious to the presence of four strangers making other people’s property their own.

In the end of their search, they found some batteries, a torch, some painkillers and aspirin, as well as clothes and hygiene products.

As expected, the people who left had raided the pharmacy almost empty. There was nothing left in the shelves or cupboards, and the place looked completely trashed. The trip to the gas station wasn’t successful either because the petrol pumps were mostly empty.

“The sun is about to set. We should return.” Kuro pointed out, looking at the sky with a concerned look on his face. They barely got any fuel, maybe half a canister which wasn’t nearly enough to get the generator going.

“We still need gas. Otherwise, we won’t have electricity.” Yaku said, throwing the petrol pump away.

“Why don’t we just get the fuel out of the tanks of the cars in the neighbourhood. Most of the people left their cars behind.” Bokuto threw in, and Akaashi, Yaku and Kuro turned towards him, their faces blank and totally dumbfounded.

“Wow, for you to point that out first… it’s just mind-boggling.” Kuro said with a raised eyebrow.

“Hey!” Bokuto yelled.

“Come on, let’s do what you suggested.” Akaashi kissed him, squeezing his cheeks in a encouraging gesture.

And that’s what they did. It wasn’t easy to find cars where the filler cap could be opened without the key, but they managed to fill the two canisters they brought with them, though the taste of petrol in one’s mouth was rather disgusting.

Then suddenly, the blaring sound of a car alarm echoed through the area, and the zombies roaming around moved towards the source of the noise. The four men looked around frantically, trying to figure out where the sound came from and what might have caused it.

“What’s happening?!” Yaku muttered as they moved behind another car, watching as the zombies made it down the street.

Some were sprinting, others were walking and others again were limping or crawling. The differences in speed was shocking.

“I don’t know.” Akaashi whispered, trying to hold his breath as to not make a sound.

He hadn’t expected so many zombies to be there. They were crawling from every corner, heading into the direction of the car alarm. Some were so close, they literally passed them by, though luckily unaware of the group.

A scream of fear and agony resounded through the air, and Bokuto immediately reacted to it, jumping into action without thinking twice. Akaashi instantly followed him in an attempt to hold him back, but holding Bokuto back wasn’t a straightforward thing to do.

“Hold on!” Keiji whispered-yelled, but it was useless. The white-haired man just sprinted into the danger zone, followed by Kuro and Yaku. Akaashi had just wanted to ignore it, trying to convince himself that it was too late, anyway; however, ignorance was only bliss when everyone played along.

“HELP ME, PLEASE! ANYONE, PLEASE HELP!” The high-pitched voice yelled, frightened and desperate. They ran as fast as they could, and Akaashi’s lung started burning.

They arrived at the scene, but it was too late. The brown-haired woman cowered on the ground, holding her hands up in defence. Her dress was torn, and she look helpless, though the monsters had no mercy. There was no room for mercy; they just didn’t have the capacity to feel it anymore. They had lost their human side, their rationality, reason and the capability to feel anything but hunger. There was only instincts left.

“AAAHHHH! HEEELP! EEEWP ARG—“ the yell was drowned out and left was a gurgling sound as if the person’s lung was filling with blood.

It was gruesome. The zombies tore her apart alive. She must have been conscious about the fact that they ate her while she had yet to take her last swig of air. Bokuto looked shocked; his face conveying his guilt of not being able to save her.

Akaashi could read his mind perfectly well. He knew his thoughts because he was just too easy to read. His emotions were always openly visible on his face; So raw, unsealed and genuinely open: _‘Why didn’t I run faster?’_ , _‘Why?’_ , _‘Why didn’t I…’_

Blood painted the dry asphalt, and Akaashi wished for the rain from a few days ago to come back and wash away the intestines of a new victim; to wash away the thick red fluid along with their memories and failures. Akaashi hated bearing witness to yet another brutal and nightmare-inducing death. Yet, the rain Akaashi wished for didn’t come, but even if it had washed away the filth, dirt and mud, the memory could never been deleted. It would stay and become part of them, shaping their future self.

“Let’s go!” Yelled Kuro when the zombies turned towards them; their blurry and hungry eyes falling onto another prey. There was just so much blood.

“KOU!” Akaashi jerked his arm, getting him to run with him. The ravenette didn’t let go of his fiancée hand and just dragged him along.

“Oh fuck! Run faster!” Yaku shouted, panicked. The zombies were about to catch up with them. They hadn’t yet done so because they tripped and stopped each other in the attempt to get the prey first.

They escaped into an open house, slamming the door shut and shoving whatever they could find in front of the entryway.

“SHIT!” Kuro shouted, running his hand through his wild and outgrown hair. He definitely in desperate need of a haircut, Akaashi noted, even if the situation didn’t call for it.

“Are you okay?” Keiji asked Bokuto, who answered with a simple and curt, “Yes, I am fine.” It seemed forced, but the raven-haired male didn’t want to push him.

The zombies started banging against the door in an even almost rhythmic tact. The gurgling sounds were quite prominent, and each noise had burned itself into Akaashi’s brain, so he could immediately pick up and distinguish it.

“Upstairs!” Yaku yelled when the monsters broke the glass door from the garden to the living room.

The sound of their shoes clattering against the steps, their heavy breathing and the zombies’ growling mixed and morphed into a constant and singular sound that could be heard in the entire house. They ran into the first room, locking it in the process.

“Who are you?!” Asked a panicked and frightened voice from behind and the four men turned around, finding themselves threatened at gunpoint.

Akaashi cocked his head to the side, perplexed and irritated not only because he was threatened with a gun, but because a teenaged boy with light brown hair in a fucking wheelchair threatened them with a gun.

It looked utterly ridiculous because the only deadly and fear-inducing thing about the boy was the gun he held in his shaky hands. Akaashi hoped he wasn’t some trigger-happy maniac, although he doubted it, since the teen merely seemed scared after a bunch of people barged into his hideout without prior notice.

“Put the gun down, kid. We’re not your enemies.” Kuro said, holding his hands above his head.

“That’s the exact thing an enemy would say.” Stated the boy with narrowed eyes.

“Well, we promise? We’re in the same predicament right now, so we need each other’s help.” Kuro tried. He was at a loss for words, which seldom ever happened. He blamed it on the raging and roaming zombies outside because ever since the outbreak, his stress level was sky-rocketing.

“The only useful thing about him is the gun. If it’s loaded.” Akaashi deadpanned. He wasn’t in the mood to have a discussion about trust with a seemingly disabled teenager.

“Wow, aren’t you insensitive? That was a low-blow. So unlike you.” Kuro quirked his eyebrow up, staring at the other. The stress was really getting to him.

“Where’s my mom?” The teen asked, unperturbed by the insult. A dark and cold shiver ran down Akaashi’s spine, and he desperately hoped that he was wrong.

“What does she look like?” Bokuto asked genuinely; his posture open and welcoming.

“Short brown hair. She has a ponytail and wore a dress with flowers on it.” He said, and Bokuto swallowed the lump of saliva that collected at his gums.

“Well, ehmm…” the man stuttered, seemingly fishing for words as the realisation that the woman on the street had been the boy’s mother hit him with blunt non-cushioned force.

“She’s dead. Got torn apart by the dead.” Akaashi states with a blank expression; his voice was neutral, emotionless and cold.

“WHAT?! NO! That can’t be!” Tears of disbelief collected in the teen’s eyes, and his voice cracked. The hard truth seemed to have shattered his soul.

“Keiji! What the fuck?!” Bokuto gritted out, turning to face the other.

“What? Did you want me to wrap it up more nicely? The sooner he learns how cruel and ruthless the world has become the better.”

“That’s not the point. He’s a just a kid!” Kotarou frowned, and Keiji had barely ever seen him angry.

The teenage boy let go of the gun, and the thud of impact on the carpeted floor was deafening because a scream of pure grief and agony accompanied it.

The sobbing tore at Akaashi’s heart, and he regretted his poor choice of words instantly. Maybe sugarcoating things would have been the better option, but the stress and adrenaline, along with the constant anxiety caused the ravenette to just snap.

“I am… sorry.” The Keiji muttered as the feeling of guilt started to eat at him.

The boy’s wailing didn’t cease, but got louder and more pain-ridden. His grief drew in the zombies’ attention, and they hammered against the door even louder than before, trying to get inside, in order to get to the source of the weeping.

Kuro grabbed the gun which turned out to be a very realistic-looking toy gun while Yaku tried to calm the boy down with words of sympathy and understanding. He rubbed his back in a motherly way, whipping the tears away.

Bokuto grabbed Akaashi by the arm, pulling him aside. He had a serious expression on his face, and Keiji refused to meet his golden and disappointed eyes.

“What the actual fuck?!” He exclaimed with a deep frown; his grip so tight, it was hurting.

“Don’t look at me like this.” Akaashi sighed, biting down at his bottom lip to compensate for the pain in his arm.

“That was totally unnecessary.” Bokuto stated; his tone reprimanding and angry.

“I will not apologise.” Why should he? Even if he had worded the boy’s mother’s death differently, the result would have been the same: grief and a haunting sense of loss.

“What’s gotten into you?” The white-haired man asked, and his voice turned softer.

Tears started to prick at Akaashi’s eyes, and he had difficulties holding them back. He didn’t know why he had acted in such an insensitive and heartless way. He didn’t understand why he directed his anger at an innocent boy he didn’t even know. Everything was just too much. Everything had piled up; the anxiety and the frustration. His reaction had been childish and immature, and Keiji knew that very well.

Bokuto cradled his face, caressing his cheeks gently. “It’s okay.” He whispered soothingly, and Akaashi grabbed onto the other’s hands, enjoying and the tender touch. He was then pulled into a tight hug, and his face was being pushed against Bokuto’s hard chest. Keiji closed his eyes as clung to the other male’s back. He wasn’t going to cry. He wasn’t the type of person to cry, so he wouldn’t.

“I don’t really want to interrupt your rather intimate moment, but we should get out of here.” Kuro cleared his throat.

“Right.” Bokuto said, embarrassed. “What’s your name?” He asked the teen.

“Izumi. Izumi Yukitaka.” The brunette answered.

After a quick introduction, they needed to find a safe way to get out of the house. A hoard of zombies blocked the main entrance, so the only way left was the window which luckily was leading right onto the roof.

“Can you walk?” The man with bi-coloured hair asked; eyes shifting from the boy’s face to his legs and the wheelchair.

“No. I broke both my legs after a fall right before the outbreak. I fractured them again because we had to run away. They couldn’t heal properly, so it hurts when I walk. I had to put pressure on my joints because we didn’t have the proper medication.” Izumi explained.

He must be in a vast amount of pain, considering that he didn’t have any painkillers.

“I am gonna strap you onto my back, then.” Bokuto stated, and the teen nodded hesitantly. They used belts from the cupboards and clothes, hoping it would be enough. Izumi wasn’t heavy after all.

The door cracked, and some of the zombies put their arms through, groaning and moaning.

“We gotta hurry!”

They opened the window wide, and one after another stepped out, climbing onto the roof. Akaashi turned around, looking into the blood-shot and dead, yet somewhat alive, eyes of one of the zombies. Its gaze was intense, and it felt like the monster was aiming for him, trying to memorise his features. Keiji shook his head to get rid of that unreasonable thought that was caused by nothing more but primal fear.

“Keiji!” Bokuto called his name, and Akaashi closed the window shortly before the zombies broke the door down, swarming into the small room.

They climbed down the roof, which wasn’t difficult because the roof was directly connected to the garage which was connected to a high fence. Below the fence were the trash cans. Only a few zombies were roaming the area, since most of the gathered at the back door. Now they had to get back to their car safely.

**00000**

Akaashi fell onto the bed on the second floor in the shelter, staring at the ceiling. He sighed lowly, closing his eyes, but opening them immediately. He didn’t dare close his eyes because the haunting images would be just too fresh in his mind. It was hard getting used to seeing humans die such a way, but maybe he shouldn’t ever get used to it. Getting used to it would mean losing a part of his own identity as a human being, crafting a path for apathy, ruthlessness and brutality.

Akaashi jumped up from the bed and started rummaging through the cupboard until he found what he had been looking for: a pen and a blank notebook.

It felt weird holding a pencil in his hand and between his fingers again. He put the pencil down on the paper, dragging it over the material; the familiar sound of scratching a pencil over a piece of paper was like music. He had missed it.

He wrote the date into the right corner of the notebook: **07/30/2020 day 64 of survival**

**Behavioural Analysis**

Physical appearance: dull and glassy eyes, sometimes bloodshot eyes; dull skin; degrees of decay visible; often bite marks; sometimes entire body parts missing…

Behaviour: unexplainable desire for food (prey: humans); insatiable and always starved; sensitive to sound, smell and movements, sense of smell and vision still intact; incredible strength; acting solely on instinct, no sign for higher brain functions such as reason or planning; various levels of speed; endless stamina (don’t seem to get tired)

_Special Characteristic: they can only be killed by destroying the brain_

**Emotional capacity: none**

**Cause: unknown**

Akaashi didn’t know what to make exactly of the information he was gathering, but he thought it might be important to get a proper understanding of the zombies characteristics. It might give them some insight and maybe help them someday to overcome this crisis, so that the living dead could be defeated some day.

The raven-haired man went back downstairs, joining the rest. He wasn’t able to talk with Bokuto about the situation, but as of now, he seemed to have recovered from the initial shock and horror. He also still had to apologise to Izumi, since he had acted like an asshole.

However, a hard knock on the door disrupted the group who had gathered around the table. The lights were low, but still visible from the outside. Everyone’s head snapped into the direction of the knock, all five of them suddenly on high alert. The knock resounded again. Harder and firmer this time. None of them moved a muscle, only the sound of their racked breathing filling the room. It wasn’t clear whether it was a knock from a zombie or a living person.

Kuro reached for the lamp, but Yaku stopped him, shaking his head. Turning of the light now would just serve as another stimulus. A weird feeling of unease and anxiety settled in Akaashi’s stomach, and all they could do right now was wait.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! It’s been quite a while, but I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Leave comments and kudos if you like. I am always keen to hear what you think. And thank you for all the lovely feedback I’ve received so far. It made me real happy 🥰💞


	10. A World Unhinged

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello!! Chapter 10 is up. One day before Halloween!!🎃  
> Enjoy! 💖

Nobody in the house dared to make a sound, even breathing right now was off limits, since that too was making way too much noise. The dim light was still on, and Akaashi, Kuro, Bokuto, Yaku and Izumi – the newest member of the of the group – were sitting under the table, eyes fixated on the door, studying and trying to assess the situation from afar.

The knot of raw fear was tightening inside Akaashi’s belly and for a moment, he contemplated whether he should give in to his flight instinct. His breathing was shallow, and there was a familiar tingling feeling beneath his skin. It was burning and Keiji had the urge to scratch all over his body to ease the almost unbearable sensation. He wanted it to go away. He knew the itching wasn’t actually there, but panic started to slowly seize his body. He tried to have happy thoughts, reasoning that it could just be the wind.

The knocking that bounced off the walls merely seconds ago was gone, but it was quickly replaced by fervent scratching. The howling of the wind that entered the house through the tilted window only made everything more eerie. The curtain fluttered, and the rings that attached it to the bar jingled loudly and periodically with every blow.

“I am gonna go check it out.” Bokuto whispered, but Akaashi clung to his arm, almost desperately digging his fingers into the other man’s skin.

“It’s probably only the wind.” He reasoned, and for the first time, Akaashi felt like Bokuto was actually the level-headed one in their relationship.

Bokuto made eye-contact with Kuro, who nodded curtly in return, understanding instantly what his best friend was asking of him. They slid over the floor, surprisingly light on their feet and without making a sound. They moved like a cat on the hunt for rodents.

The time seemed to have stopped as the scratching got louder; the wild fluttering of the curtain and the ticking of the clock that blended with Akaashi’s and Izumi’s short and shallow intakes of breath the only noticeable things that filled the otherwise silent room.

Bokuto went to the tilted window, grabbing the curtain and peeking out, in order to figure out what was going on in front of the main entry while Kuro positioned himself right in front of the door, waiting for a signal. Suddenly they heard barking; it was short but loud.

Kotarou’s shoulders visibly relaxed when the sound of the woofing entered his ear drums and his brain processed what it was, whereas the rest of the group went stiff upon hearing the yipping of the animal before they also realised what it was.

“It’s a dog!” exclaimed Bokuto loudly, laughing in relief. “It’s just a dog.” He repeated with a boisterous chuckle, and Kuro cracked the door, letting the stray inside.

“Wait!” Akaashi yelled, worry lacing his voice. His breath caught up in his throat; they didn’t know whether the disease could also infect animals. It was such a reckless move.

Besides, how could it only be a dog when they heard a knocking sound. To Akaashi’s knowledge, dogs did not knock on doors. It had been a loud, firm and determined knock, so how? Maybe someone else was there first, and the dog came after. Or did Akaashi imagine the knocking? Had it been the sound of scratching all along? The ravenette couldn’t remember.

The dog, a black Labrador, ran inside and jumped happily up and down. It was wearing a bright red collar, indicating that it had an owner, though said owner wasn’t with it. Its fur was muddy and so were its paws. It dirtied and wet the floor, leaving paw prints all over the place.

“I know that dog.” Izumi exclaimed with wide eyes, his face lighting up upon seeing the animal run towards him, licking his face as it paced off again. Visibly excited to see them.

“You know her?” Kuro asked, joining Bokuto in petting the dog. The moment of eeriness totally forgotten.

“Awww, look how cute she is.” Bokuto was rubbing the animal all over, really enjoying petting her, even starting to talk in a baby-voice. Most people talk to cute animals like that.

“Who’s the owner?” Yaku asked the teen, and Akaashi had the same question.

“She belongs to my friend Shouyou. Shouyou Hinata. Her name’s Luna. She’s extremely loyal to him. She wouldn’t just leave him and his sister alone.” The concern and worry were written all over the brunette’s face as his brows formed a deep crease between his eyes.

“Luna? What an ordinarily boring name.” Kuro commented, eyebrow raised.

“They didn’t bother renaming her after they got her.” Izumi explained, pursing his lips as he watched the Labrador.

“Maybe they are still out there.” Yaku said and silence followed his words. The dog barked again, sensing the sudden drop in their mood as she wagged her tail rapidly from one side to the other, probably trying to cheer them up.

“We should go look for them. They might need help. The dog might know where they are.” Bokuto stated, squeezing Rambo’s face.

 _‘Or they could be zombies by now’_ Akaashi thought to himself, biting his tongue. He didn’t dare voice it out loud. He didn’t want to be the one ruining the mood again with his negativity and pessimism.

“Right.” Kuro agreed, getting up and cracking his stiff muscles. “Let’s go look for them.”

“Let’s go, girl!” Bokuto said to the dog, getting her all excited with his voice. “Show us where your owners are!”

The only thing Akaashi had on his mind was how reckless they were. First with the dog and now with trying to look for someone who might not even be there. Or was he being too cautious?

The dog seemed to understand what the man in front of her wanted her to do, so she sprinted to the door, scratching at the wood, jumping up and down while barking.

“It’s pretty dark outside.” Akaashi stated. The situation right now wasn’t kosher at all. “Be careful.” He said, instead of voicing his concerns.

“Don’t worry.” Bokuto smiled, and the raven-haired man couldn’t bring himself to smile back with the same easiness, even though he tried.

“Don’t take too long and don’t go too far into the woods.” Yaku reprimanded in his mother like manner and with a strict tone.

“Geez, yes mom. Seriously, you need to relax a little Yakkun. You’re too stiff.” Kuro commented with a dismissive gesture of his hand, opening the door for the excited dog and escaping the other’s wrath, namely the pillow from the couch.

Bokuto and Kuro followed the dog outside while the other three stayed behind, hoping the two wouldn’t get in trouble. They had nothing to contact each other, and phones were useless. Sometimes Keiji wondered what all these people addicted to Social Media or the internet in general felt about not being connected anymore. They had probably tried to desperately update their status while running for their lives when the apocalypse started.

It wasn’t only the inability to get in contact with Bokuto and Kuro, in case something happened, or the fact that the sun had already quarterly disappeared behind the horizon that concerned Akaashi, but the rather rapid weather changes these days. Temperatures rose to 30 °C or above during the day and plummeted to merely 10 °C at night.

Kuro and Bokuto followed the jovial dog into the woods, though it turned out to be quite a challenge to keep up with her. At some point, they only followed the barking noises she made because they had lost her. They weren’t this far away from the house or at least they thought so. Getting too far into the woods was dangerous and even more was staying outside in the dark.

The sun continued to slowly disappear, and the wind was cold. The temperature was dropping rapidly with the disappearing sun, and Bokuto could see the vapour of his breath in the cold air and feel the chilly breeze on his bare skin. He was only wearing a shirt after all, and the tranquillity of his surroundings started to freak him out a tiny bit.

“AHHHH!”

Bokuto’s and Kuro’s bodies went stiff, senses on high alert. The high-pitched shriek was close to them, and Tetsu motioned into the direction it had to have come from.

“Let’s hurry.” The black-haired man urged, setting off into the direction of the scream.

The bushes were a nasty opponent, hitting Bokuto in the face every once in a while, as he made his way through the thick undergrowth, following closely behind his friend.

They found the dog again, barking at a bunch of blood-thirsty zombies that were trying to get to a boy with wild ginger hair and a little girl with the same flame-like hair colour — four zombies in total.

“Don’t let them get me!!” the child screamed hoarsely with a tear-struck face, panicked and scared.

The boy tried to keep the zombies at bay with a piece of wood, though the monsters didn’t seem faced by it at all as one of them suddenly got hold of the wood and tore it out of his shaky hand. He had his left hand clasped against his chest while he waved the other around.

“STAY AWAY! EEP!” He shouted, and his voice sounded as shaken and scared as the girl’s. He tried to protect her, keeping her behind him as she clung to his ragged and dirty clothes, tearing at them in a wild panic.

The dog ran around, barking, whining and growling, fletching her teeth. However, only one of the zombies reacted to her while the other three were more interested in the teen and the little girl in front of them, despite the ruckus the dog made.

The children crawled backwards, tears stinging their eyes as their sobs grew louder. One of the zombie’s got a hold on the girl’s leg, pulling her forward; she screamed, only crying harder as she felt its hand clasp around her ankle. The ginger-haired boy tried to pull the girl back, and before the undead monsters could sink its teeth into any of the frightened kids, Kuro and Bokuto jumped in to rescue them.

Kuro swung a crowbar at one of them and then at the other, rapidly and with long determined motions crushing their sculls. The crack of bones resounded through the empty woods along with the dog’s desperate howling and the children’s scared sobbing.

Bokuto immobilised them first by aiming at their kneecaps. The zombies had turned towards the two men, who had announced their appearance with a loud battle cry, storming at the men.

Kotarou had killed off one and was about to finish the other. He had put his foot on its back; its arms have long been rendered useless. The man looked at the zombie that was trying to get out from underneath his foot while simultaneously trying to bite and grab at him. It was wheezing, growling and flaking the useless and broken arms. From the angle that Bokuto was looking at it right now, it behaved like a monster. Upon closer inspection; however, he could see that it once was a person. A teenager, barely older than 18 years of age. How sad it was that the boy had lost his life that way. However, Bokuto knew he couldn’t dwell on that feeling right now. He also shouldn’t think about the woman he couldn’t save because he wasn’t fast enough. He should take his own advice and focus on the here and now. He had killed a lot of zombies already and now wasn’t the time to see the human being these monsters once were. What was beneath his foot was no human? It wasn’t the teenager that happily went to school only a few months ago. It was a zombie now. It had no mind, no conscience.

Bokuto had to save the living. He had to protect those two children that were shivering and crying right in front of him. That’s what he had to do: protect the living.

He broke the hissing and struggling zombie’s neck before he smashed its head with the bat. He could never get used to the feeling of bone cracking beneath the piece of solid wood; could never get used to the sound. The baseball bat felt heavy in his hands, heavier than it was. Bokuto knew it was the burden that came with the act of killing, not the bat itself. Those kids shouldn’t have to watch two grown men smash someone’s skull in with murderous intent. Even though these things were already dead, their shell was still somewhat human.

“Are you okay?” Bokuto asked, concern lacing his voice as he approached the boy who was protecting the younger girl. He had blood on his torn clothes, face and hands.

“…” Tears ran down the teenager’s face, dripping onto the ground and disappearing into the soil. The sobbing had stopped, though and only the girl was still crying; loudly and desperately, her entire body language showing the trauma she had just experienced.

“We won’t hurt you.” Bokuto said, reaching out to them; however, the boy seemed hesitant. Now that Kotarou got a good look at the children, he could see how famished they were. Their skin was dirty, their hair greasy, their lips cracked from dehydration, and their bones were protruding from under their dull skin, indicating that they had gone without food for quite some time.

“I am Kotarou and that’s Tetsu.” He pointed at Kuro who gave him a weak wave, leaning onto the crowbar. “Your friend Izumi is with us. Your name is Shouyou, right?”

“Izu— Izumi?” the ginger-haired teen asked sceptically, still eyeing the men that had just saved him and his sister, regarding them with suspicion.

The dog was sitting next to the children, snuggling her head into the crying girl’s body, trying to calm her down as she kept clinging onto her brother. The dog wasn’t reacting hostile towards the two men, so the ginger assumed they were telling the truth. Besides, they had saved him and his sister, so they couldn’t be bad people.

“Th-Thank you.” He whispered in a broken voice as he sniffled. The tears rolled down his hollow-looking cheeks again as he realised they were neither going to fall victim to the zombies nor starving to death out there in the woods.

Akaashi’s leg was shaking, moving up and down in a quick and rhythmic motion. He was nervously looking out the window, his eyes moving through the area, even though he could barely see anything as the sun had just set.

“Should I have gone with them?” he asked, still looking outside. What took them so long?

“They’ll be fine.” Yaku said, and Akaashi opted to believe him and trust his words, even if the lingering fear of them not turning up remained.

What if he never saw Koutarou again? He didn’t kiss him when he left; didn’t tell him he loved him more than anything. What if this was the end? What if—

A rumble from outside got the two men’s attention. Yaku and Akaashi moved towards the door that suddenly swung open, hitting the wall with a hard, dull thud and leaving a sharp dent.

Bokuto and Kuro had two very malnourished-looking kids with ginger hair with them. Yaku immediately jumped up, tending to them, and Izumi’s face showed how happy and relieved he was to see his friend was still alive.

“Shou!” the brunette called out with happy tears in his eyes, sitting on the floor.

“Izumi!” Hinata shouted back, equally happy to see a familiar face. They hugged each other.

“I am so happy to see you!” Izumi said, clinging onto his friend, who had become scarily thin. “How’s Natsu?”

“She’s sleeping.” The ginger-haired boy answered, though he couldn’t say that she was fine.

She wasn’t. She was scared and traumatised and Shouyou had the feeling he failed to protect his little sister. He didn’t fulfil his role as the big brother.

“Here. You should drink and eat something, but don’t eat too fast, otherwise you might get sick.” Yaku offered him a bottle of water and some stew.

He woke up Natsu, so she could replenish her energy too.

“Thank you.” Hinata said with a warm smile that was squeezing the adult’s heart.

“Th-Thank you.” Natus whispered; her voice hoarse and her movements hesitant and slow.

“What happened to you?” Akaashi asked tentatively, recognising the boy and the girl form the picture he found in the house back in the village. They were older now and thinner, but the fiery-red hair was a unique trait.

“We…” Shouyou started, pausing while casting his eyes away. He hadn’t thought about _it_ because Kotarou had lightened the mood with his constant talking, but now that his mind wasn’t occupied anymore, he was forced to remember. Forced to remember how their parents along with so many other people died. Forced to remember what happened to their bodies.

“You don’t need to tell us.” Keiji hastily said. He didn’t want to upset him. He didn’t look well, neither physically nor mentally and the raven-haired man wondered what Shouyou and his sister might have been through. He was curious, but he didn’t want to push it.

“We were evacuated, but… but the soldiers just left all the other people behind at some point, so we joined a group and later on we met people who offered to take us in…” the ginger stopped again, fighting the tears.

“Take it easy.” Bokuto said, rubbing the teen’s shoulders supportively.

“The shelter… _Empyrean_ …” The tears were freely running down his cheeks now. “Everything seemed fine at first, but there was so much tension. They went completely nuts, sacrificing people at some point!”

“!!” Akaashi was shocked, “what do you mean _sacrifice_?” he asked, hoping that the boy just chose the wrong word.

“They sacrificed living people like some cult.” Hinata was mimicking stabbing movements in a frenzy, his body shaking and trembling.

**_+++++_ **

_It was completely dark outside when Hinata peeked out of the small crack in the wood. He and his sister were cooped up in the corner of the barn they got locked in, waiting for hours for someone to get them or for their parents to return. The ginger couldn’t make out anything in the dark, and he felt tired; his stomach protesting with a loud growl. They hadn’t eaten for three consecutive days, and they barely got any water. He could feel the dryness in his throat, and he constantly had to lick his lips, swallowing the clot of salvia in his mouth. They had been locked in the barn for weeks; Shouyou didn’t know how many, but they were the only ones left after their parents had been taken away along with three other people. There had been at least 15 people including him and Natsu, but the number decreased week by week and day by day. Now, Shouyou had no clue where the rest was._

_The handcuffs on his and Natsu’s writs made it unable for them to escape. Shouyou had been struggling against the cuffs that tied him to a metal post on the wall. The skin on his wrist was rubbed open, and the rash was hurting. The pain of his empty stomach; however, was causing him much more discomfort right now. Why did they end up like this? Everything was fine at first. The people, that took the group they belonged to, in gave them shelter, food and clothes, but it suddenly stopped. Coldness and disregard came and replaced the hospitality when the leader’s family turned into zombies._

_“I am scared.” Natsu whispered, and her body felt cold. “When are mom and dad coming back?” She asked, but Shouyou couldn’t give her an answer. He wanted to tell her they would be back soon, but the words were stuck in his throat. The last time they had seen them was four days ago._

_“I don’t know.” The ginger whispered back, unable to lie to her._

_“Why did they put handcuffs on us?” Another question, the boy had no answer to._

_“I don’t know.” The same answer again._

_“I am hungry.” The girl whined, and the ginger was getting irritated, probably because he was hungry too._

_The night went on, and Hinata’s mind was as empty as his stomach. The light of the moon entered the dark barn, casting at least a bit of light on the dark inside._

_Shouyou pulled on the handcuffs again, harder this time and more desperate. The more he unsuccessfully pulled on the cuffs the more frustrated and scared he become. The clacking of metal filled his ears, but nothing happened; the cuff remained in place and he remained attached to the metal pole. The cuffs where still just too tight on his wrist. He couldn’t wriggle out of them, even though he dropped so much weight and there was now a little more space. There was this one joint on his wrist that prevented him from pulling the cuffs over his hand._

_The ginger-haired boy contemplated, staring at his thumb, wriggling and moving the joint around. He didn’t need his hand that much, right? If he broke his thumb that held him in the cuffs, then he could surely get out of them, right? That’s how it was supposed to work, right?_

_He took his thumb, eyeing his digit while biting his lip, closing his eyes. He took a deep breath: In and out. He had to do so several times in order to work up the courage. Then he pulled his thumb as far straight out as he could. The pain that shot through him was almost unbearable, and he had trouble keeping his voice in. It hurt so bad he wanted to cry. Tears pricked in his eyes, rolling down his cheeks at some point as every ligament in his joint was ripped._

_Hinata was panting, trying hard to calm himself down, mumbling words of self-encouragement under his breath. His sister was still sleeping, and he needed to get out of these cuffs, so he could wake her up. The man hadn’t cuffed her as tightly as he cuffed him, so maybe she could get out of them without going as far as he had to._

_The sharp pain in his hand didn’t seem to subside, but the ginger continued despite that. He pulled the cuff over his wrist, but it still wouldn’t go over because his thumb now caused another problem. The bone was now sticking out in the middle of his palm, making it impossible for his to pull the handcuffs over._

_Hinata felt hopeless. His body was hurting, and his hand throbbed with excruciating pain. Why did he think breaking a bone would work? He had done it, and for what? For nothing. He was still stuck, unable to escape the cuffs without the keys. He had fallen asleep crying. The pain wore him out, and so did everything else._

_The next day came and went by, and Hinata and Natsu were still in the same place. He had screamed and called for help, but nobody answered his calls. Only once someone came by and brought them a bottle of water, barely enough for the two of them. They didn’t give them any food, though but Hinata had long stopped feeling hungry, anyway. He got used to the feeling of an empty stomach; used to the headaches and used how blurry everything looked._

_As he watched the light of the sun disappear again, Shouyou wondered whether he should just bite his tongue off. His teeth scrapped over the muscle, biting down a little. The boy slumped back with a heavy sigh, staring at the ceiling that he could barely see in the pitch-black darkness._

_Natsu sniffled, but Hinata could do nothing but pull her into a hug. There was nothing he could do. There was nothing lying around. Everything was just empty._

_A rattle on the door got Shouyou’s and Natsu’s attention. They jumped at the creaking sound, pressing themselves into the wall behind them. The light that entered the barn blinded the ginger, so he couldn’t make out the figure that had stepped inside._

_The person put a hand over his mouth, but he still couldn’t make out a face._

_“Shhhh!” The voice said, soothing and calm. “Don’t be scared. I heard you, and I’ll help you.” He said, and Hinata nodded fiercely, trying not to break out into tears._

_“Who are you?” Shouyou croaked out, narrowing his eyes in an attempt to make out the face in the dark._

_“That’s not important right now.” He said, and Hinata didn’t press further because the man’s aura put him at ease somehow._

_They ran over the field, sneaking around the camp. They still had to get out, without being seen. All he and his sister did was following and trusting a complete stranger. They had no other choice. The stranger saved them. He had heard their calls and answered them._

_Hinata stopped dead in his tracks when he heard the voice of his father and the crying of his mother. He followed the screams and voices, hiding behind a bush._

_There was a huge campfire set up in the middle, where several people were kneeling in front of. They were tied up and gagged; their eyes scared and their bodies shaking. Shouyou knew some of these people. They had been with him and Natsu in the barn._

_There was an altar that was located on a ridge to which steps led. The whole thing looked like it was set up by the kneeling people. People who were scared. People who were sobbing and used like slaves. The guy that once took them in was leaning over a figure that was tied to the altar, naked and scared. His eyes were wide open, and he tried to scream, but the rag in his mouth prevented his screams from escaping his mouths._

_Hinata’s eyes widened when he recognised the person. His father. His head wiped to the side when he heard his mother’s voice again. She was sobbing and crying, begging the people cladded in white clothes to stop, asking them why they were doing this._

_The man who was leaning over Shouyou’s father only seconds ago, stopped and regarded the desperately yelling woman. Then he spoke: “Get the last two.”_

_The man that had locked them in the barn nodded and bowed swiftly before he paced off into the direction of the barn._

_“The ritual shall now begin.” The man announced; his voice clear and booming. Shouyou wanted to tear his eyes away from the scene, but something inside him forced him to look. The man in the white robe rambled on, speaking a language that Hinata didn’t know, but assumed it had to be Latin. Afterwards he cited bible verses._

_When the man pulled out a knife, Shouyou’s breath hitched, and he drowned out all the noises around him as his eyes remained fixated on the sharp edge of the knife that entered and left his father’s body. The blood was pooling around him, dribbling down onto the ground, painting everything a carmine red._

_Hinata’s heart was thumbing in his chest; a heavy feeling engulfing his entire body. He wanted to scream, but he didn’t move a muscle, glued to his hiding spot behind the bushes._

_His father turned into a zombie within seconds after his death, and then he was released, immediately charging at the people who were kneeling in front of the fire. The dark-haired man who had just sacrificed Hinata’s dad started laughing like a maniac; his eyes mesmerised by the slaughtering that unfolded itself in front of his dark eyes. He continued cackling, even when the man that was supposed to get them, Shouyou and Natsu, from the barn returned and told him that the children were gone._

_“It’s done. God’s wrath will be appeased. We will be saved once we join the war.” He laughed with glee, walking down the small stairs right where the zombies mauled those people who were still alive. Hinata watched as the blood tainted the white robes, and desperate and fearful cries filled the air._

_A hand was placed in front of his eyes, and he was pulled away from the scene. The scene; however, had long burned itself into his memories._

_“I told you not to run off.” A gentle voice reprimanded, though there was sorrow underneath that tender tone. He sounded so fatherly. If Shouyou’s eyes weren’t filled to the brim with tears, he was sure he would be able to make out more of his features, besides the black short hair._

_“HELP!! PLEASE HELP!” Someone screamed, and the man stopped._

_“Listen boy. I’ll give you a description to my camp, so listen closely.” The man started as he gave him a quick description before he ran back into the direction from where they had just come from; back to the voice that was desperately calling for help._

_“If you arrive, tell them that Daichi send you!” He called, disappearing into the dark._

“WHAT?! Why did they…!?!” Bokuto sounded beyond shocked, but who wouldn’t be upon hearing something that could be straight out of a horror movie happened.

“They wanted to appease God’s wrath. He was a maniac!” The teen explained as he remembered the victims’ screams and the way their faces contorted into one of agony, horror and unspeakable pain.

“…” Everyone was speechless as they had to stomach what they had just been told. Everyone knew that there were crazy people out there. Crazy always existed, but that kind of barbaric crazy wasn’t something they were used, since they had grown up in a world that had once been more or less civilised.

“A self-proclaimed martyr, I see. And here I thought the world couldn’t get even more fucked up…” Kuro commented; his hand covering his mouth. As if sacrificing people wasn’t horrible and disgusting enough, those people were even willing to go as far as to sacrifice children. It was hard to wrap your brain around it.

“What about this Daichi person who saved you?” Akaashi asked, blinking rapidly to process all the information. Shouyou had to still be in a lot of pain, and now he could see how awfully mangled his hand looked.

“I didn’t find the camp. I forgot what he told me, and then we got lost in the woods.” Hinata said, his voice trembling and sad.

“Maybe we’ll find him again.” Bokuto said, trying to lift the teen’s mood.

“I still need to thank him.” Shouyou smiled, looking up from the hands in his lap and to his sister whose head was resting on Bokuto’s chest. She hadn’t woken up, despite the man’s loud voice.

“I can’t believe you tried to escape handcuffs by dislocating your joint.” Kuro sighed, shaking his head, but Akaashi understood what he meant. It wasn’t impossible, but it would be a very rare case to escape tight handcuffs.

“Huh? Why?” Bokuto asked.

“Because the thumb isn’t the problem. It’s the basal joint. I mean in theory, it might be possible because dislocating the basal joint would shift the next joint out of place, but… it’s just not a smart idea.” The raven-haired man told his friend, totally convinced that Bo would come up with an equally stupid idea. He didn’t blame the kid, though. He had been desperate.

“That’s why his hand looks like this.” Akaashi pointed at Shouyou’s bone that was still protruding from the palm of his hand.

“Ahhh.” Bokuto nodded, flinching at the sight of Hinata’s botched hand.

The injury hadn’t had time to heal properly, which was why it still looked like this, even after weeks of surviving in the woods on their own. They needed a doctor to fix that.

“We have some painkillers, so if you need any…” Yaku said, but Hinata shook his head. He had gotten used to the throbbing in his hand, anyway. He didn’t want them to waste pain medication on him.

“Are you sure? It must be painful.” Akaashi commented, but the teen still declined.

“It’s okay.” The ginger whispered with a small smile on his face. At least now he felt safe for once.

After taking in the newest members of their group, Akaashi and the rest decided it would be best to stay longer than they had actually planned. Shouyou and Natsu were extremely malnourished, and all in all, they weren’t in good shape. It would be irresponsible to demand of them to go on another journey without proper rest. Besides, maybe staying here wasn’t such a bad idea.

Yaku had tried to fix Hinata’s hand a little by bandaging it, but without a doctor, there wasn’t much he could do.

The fact that they not only had to live through this apocalyptic scenario but also had to witness the horrendous deaths of their parents and other people at such a vulnerable age was horrible. It was breaking Keiji’s heart, and he didn’t know what to say to make them feel better.

The Hinata siblings had regained some strength, though Natsu was running a high fewer. Her fever freaked Akaashi out, since it could mean that she got infected..

When it was his turn to tend to her, he sat next to the bed, watching the girl’s face contort in pain and discomfort while her body was shivering, despite the thick blanket and the warm weather outside. It hadn’t been an easy task to convince Hinata that he needed to rest, but since he was exhausted, he just fell asleep.

Keiji checked her temperature, which was running as high as the day before, bordering a temperature that called for hospitalisation. He put a cold wet towel on her forehead, watching her rib cage rise and fall. He desperately hoped that she wasn’t infected, and that stress had caused the fever.

He got his notebook and tried to remember the symptoms of the disease.

He tapped his pencil on the blank paper and he set to write, but the pencil lead hovered over the paper as his hand remained still, trembling a little. Was this really the right time for this?

A few minutes later, Akaashi started writing. He had to get his mind off of things. He needed his mind to be occupied with something and writing eased the tension he had bottled up inside of him.

**08/08/2020 day 74 of survival**

**Most common SYMPTOMS OF ‘ _ACDS’_**

  * Severe headaches
  * Nausea and stomach pains
  * React sensitively to light, noise and other stimuli
  * High fever, chills and sweating
  * Glassy eyes, dry skin, and discolouring of the skin
  * Motoric dysfunction, aggression
  * …



The raven-haired man couldn’t remember what else was on the list. These were such common symptoms found in so many other diseases that Akaashi didn’t even know why he’d written them down.

His eyes shifted to the girl again. Natsu had complained that her head was pounding, which Akaashi now counted as a _‘headache’_ , and she also felt nauseous. Adding the high fever and the chills to it, had Keiji panic once again. He didn’t have the courage to check if she was sensitive to outside stimuli or if there was a bite mark somewhere on her body, for he feared it might confirm his suspicions.

 _‘It could just be a cold or something else that’s not the zombie disease.’_ He reasoned, but it was hard to convince himself. _‘I need to tell the rest.’_

“We need to talk.” Akaashi whispered in a low voice, not wanting Izumi and Shouyou to catch on that something was wrong.

“What’s wrong?” Bokuto asked, a crease forming in between his eyes as he raised one of his eyebrows.

“Where are Morisuke and Kuro?” Keiji asked, instead of answering the question.

“In the kitch—” Bokuto started, but his fiancé was already walking towards the kitchen. “Hey! What’s going on?”

Keiji ignored him and entered the kitchen, motioning for Yaku and Kuro to come over.

“We might have a problem.” Akaashi spoke up, checking if one of the teenagers was somewhere near earshot.

“What kind of problem?” Kuro asked, his face worried as he snacked on the fruits that Yaku wanted to use for preparing the food.

“It’s Natsu. She’s got a very high fever among other symptoms.” He stated, hesitant. His uneasiness only intensified when the others didn’t immediately say anything.

“What are you talking about? What symptoms?” Bokuto was confused.

“… that’s not good.” Muttered Tetsurou with an inaudible sigh.

“… are you sure it’s not just a cold?” Yaku asked with pursed lips and a clenched jaw. He knew exactly what Akaashi was insinuating.

“She might be infected.” Keiji said; his expression dead serious.

“What do you want us to do?!” Kotarou’s voice almost sounded accusing. He wore a troubled expression on his face; one that Akaashi hated seeing on him.

“I… I don’t know, but if she’s infected, then…” Akaashi fell silent again, averting his eyes from Bokuto’s golden one.

“It’s probably just some cold.” The duel-haired man muttered, frowning. The man’s angry reaction irritated Keiji. He had just been stating the obvious.

“But what if she is indeed infected?” Kuro piqued in, and the silence thickened once again as everyone fell silent once more, and only the sizzling oil of the frying vegetables in the pan was audible.

“Does she have a bite mark or a scratch? Do we even know that this is how the disease spreads?” Yaku asked, and Akaashi had to admit that he had a point.

The disease had infected many people each day, so whatever caused the infection, be it a virus, fungi, bacteria, parasites or something else entirely, it had to have been a stadium, in which it contracted from human to human easily and with no symptoms. Death caused people to turn into a zombie merely seconds or a few minutes after they had died.

“I haven’t checked.” Akaashi admitted, rubbing his tired eyes. What if she was infectious right now? What if everything her body emitted was infectious; sweat for instance? Where they already infected just by being near her or by being near the zombies they had encountered so far? What if the infection spread like spores through the air when someone died?

“So what now?” Kuro asked, pursing his lips. He didn’t want to go there, but they might have to do it.

“We need to confirm it first…” Yaku said, putting the kitchen utensils aside and taking the pan from the hot stove. He looked frustrated.

“It’s probably nothing.” Bokuto stated, looking away and crossing his arms over his chest. What about Shouyou? What would they tell him? He’d been through so much, and now he might lose Natsu too after already having lost so much. It wasn’t fair...

“Keiji’s a worry-ward. He’s misinterpreting symptoms that could be anything.” He argued, and Akaashi really wanted to slap him right now.

“So me being worried is a bad thing?!” Keiji gritted his teeth, but his voice remained calm. “It’s important that we are aware of these things, so we can take measures—”

“Measures… What kinds of measures?” Kotarou asked again; his voice cold and cutting.

“Fuck you, Kou.” Akaashi deadpanned, storming off. What the fuck was his problem?

“He’s got a point, Bo.” Kuro said as he watched Keiji disappear. He heard a door slam shut, so he assumed that the ravenette had locked himself inside of his room.

“She’s a child.” Bokuto said solemnly. When was this fuck going to end?

However, he shouldn’t have been such an asshole towards Keiji. Now he needed to apologise and get him to forgive him, which was easier said than done because his fiancée could hold grudges pretty much for eternity.

“Maybe it is just a cold, but we can’t rule out that she might be infected. I don’t wanna go there either, but we have no choice.” Yaku stated, and Bokuto nodded, feeling depressed because of everything that was happening right now.

**#####**

“You don’t really like it when people patch you up, do you?” Maki laughed when Iwaizumi grumbled under his breath as Maki forced him to sit down, so he could clean the cuts.

They had been walking through the woods for several hours before they entered vast, endless-seeming crop fields. They found a place to stay the night. It was just a shady old mill, but it was better than nothing.

The old mill smelled of wheat and something that Maki couldn’t really identify, but it reminded him of the smell of a rabbit cage; a mix of fresh hay, rodents and humidity.

“I said it’s fine.” Grumbled the raven-haired man, watching Hanamaki put the disinfectant on the open cuts. It stung, but it was bearable.

“You’re your usual grumpy self, I see.” Takahiro commented, finishing what he was doing.

“That’s quite a nasty scare you have there.” Maki pointed out; his eyes fixating the thick scar tissue right below the soldier’s ribcage. In fact, he had several scars adorning his body, but that one was the most prominent. Maki had to admit that he understood why Oikawa was drooling over Iwaizumi; the black-haired man had the body of a god.

“Got stabbed.” Iwaizumi stated simply and without further elaboration.

“How?” Maki asked, and Iwaizumi fell silent for a brief moment before he answered.

The raven-haired man shrugged his shoulders, “On a mission.”

Hanamaki nodded, sensing that he probably shouldn’t press for more details, since Iwaizumi seemed uncomfortable.

“Hey Toru!” He then called, immediately drawing the brunette’s attention. “You wanna take over here?”

Iwaizumi sighed heavily, pinching the bridge of his nose. The devious grin from the strawberry-blonde man irritated him, and now he had to endure Toru’s dotting.

“Coming!” Oikawa called back, practically gleaming. “Let’s go patch up Iwa-chan, Tobio-chan.” The brunette said to the boy, grabbing his small hand.

Maki sat down beside Matsun on the hay, leaning his head onto the dark-haired man’s shoulder.

“How are you feeling?” he asked, rubbing his cheek into the other’s shoulder.

“I am tired. I hate hiking.” Issei yawned, resting his head on Takahiro’s.

His feet where killing him, and so was his still pounding head. He wasn’t one to complain, though. He just had to ignore it and wait for the painkillers to kick in.

“I am cold.” Muttered Maki, leaning further into Matsun. He like the warmth his body was emitting. The day had been quite eventful.

“Come here.” Issei lifted his head, pulling Maki into a hug. He sighed, breathing in the smaller man’s scent. Matsun liked how Maki smelled.

“Do we still have the map?” Kiyoko asked, helping Hitoka with her backpack. The rest looked at each other, and for a miniscule second, everyone seemed to have a mini panic attack.

“Well, if we lost it, then we’ll just need to go where the moss points to.” Maki commented, watching the girls, Iwaizumi and Yamaguchi search for the map.

“Hmpf” Matsun snickered into Hanamaki’s hair.

Iwaizumi scowled, “Seriously? Right now?” he scoffed, and Maki shrugged.

“I got the map!” Tadashi waved the map around, and the rest sighed in relief.

“Let’s see where we are.” Iwaizumi took the map from Yamaguchi, opening it and putting it on a box.

“Hmmm,” the ravenette hummed, “we aren’t that far from the road.”

“There’s a farm close to where we are.” Kiyoko pointed out, peeking over Hajime’s shoulder, leaning onto him.

“Figured.” Oikawa stated. There were in a mill, after all.

The brunette stared at the couple, feeling the jealousy once again bubble up inside of him. Why couldn’t Iwa-chan be with him? Toru heard Tobio gasp and then he realised he had squeezed the boy’s hand way too hard.

“Ah....sorry Tobio-chan.” He mumbled, easing his grip around the raven-haired boy’s hand. Tobio leaned against him, and Oikawa had to admit that he had grown quite fond of him. It was like he understood what Toru felt.

“Then let’s go there tomorrow.” Iwaizumi announced, and the rest nodded.

“So...who’s gonna be the first on night watch?” Matsun asked, touching his nose and loudly exclaiming: “Nose goes!”

Maki was the first once to catch on, laughing like a maniac when Oikawa lost.

“Noooo!” the brunette whined, dramatically sinking to the ground while gripping his hair in frustration.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave comments and kudos! I always love getting feedback 🥰
> 
> I hope you liked this chapter. 🤗<3


	11. Agony

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! It's been quite away since the last update but here's chapter 11.

In the distance, Matsun could already recognise the old farmhouse, but they would have to cross the crop field before they were to reach their expected destination. The fatigue had a solid grip on him, even though he had about five hours of sleep. His eyelids were heavy, and his body was throbbing to the marrow of his bones.

“Let’s move.” Iwaizumi declared, taking the first step on the grassland. Crossing three entire fields, or four should be doable in less than an hour.

The grass was high, though, and he had to make sure that everybody would check for ticks afterwards, since they could easily pass down diseases that nobody asked for.

“Arg!” Toru groaned, and his head plopped to the side, his shoulders slumping in exaggeration. “It’s so far away…”

“My feet are killing me.” Yamaguchi said with a sigh. The freckled boy’s breathing was laboured, and the exhaustion was evident on his face and his slouching body.

“We can rest when we’re there.” Maki commented, following Hajime’s lead, stepping out of the woods and onto the field. He had a truly energetic spirit today.

Their pace was slow; slower than the pace they had while trekking through the forest after the accident, despite them not having to watch their footing when passing over the comparatively even soil of the field. At some point, Hanamaki, Oikawa and Yachi had started picking flowers during their walk, contributing to the slow speed at which they were advancing.

“What are you making?” Matsun asked the strawberry-blonde man next to him, who was interweaving the ends of the flowers together. He knew what Maki was doing. He only wanted to fill the silence with a random exchange of useless words.

“I am making a flower crown.” Maki explained; his tongue sticking out of his mouth in concentration. Issei hummed, observing the technique. Takahiro had tied loose flowers together with a floral vine, braiding the stems together and adding flowers with every tie and knot. He kept repeating this process with the other flowers he had picked. Maki had used dandelion, red-clover, forget-me-nots and daisies, creating a pretty ring of floral art.

The ravenette turned around towards the rest, walking reversed. Tobio, Toru, and Hitoka were wearing a crown made of flowers, and Oikawa was just placing one atop of Iwaizumi’s head. Matsukawa turned around again, snorting. They looked like a bunch of hippies.

“Hey Iwaa-chaan,” the raven said, mimicking Oikawa’s manner of speech. “The crown suits you. It mirrors your [b]loomy personality.” Matsun snickered.

“Not to mention, don’t you think our friendship had started to to _blossom_ lately?” Maki continued.

“I would have preferred to never have crossed path with you two…” grunted the other man, rolling his eyes. He didn’t mind the flower crown or the dumb play of words. Having the group do something so arbitrary and those two idiots be a nuisance as if the world were still okay was a change for once and lightened the day.

“Don’t misuse Iwa-chan’s nickname. You didn’t even sound like me. I don’t stress the ‘a’ in Iwa like that.” Oikawa said with a dramatic wave of his hand. Tobio was walking right next to the brunette, holding his hand, surprisingly being able to keep up with him, despite his short legs. Matsukawa wondered when the boy would start talking. It had been a while, and he had yet to utter a word, let alone a coherent sentence. Tobio nodded, hummed or grunted when asked a question, but most of the time, the child just stared. It creeped him out, to be honest. Matsukawa had never been good with children. He once had to babysit the neighbour’s three-year-old boy, and he forgot him at the playgrounds. The ravenette knew there was something amiss, and it had been at the tip of his tongue, but he only realised what it was when his neighbour called and asked to speak to her son. Luckily, the boy was still in the same place when he rushed back to the playground after coming up with the shittiest excuse why she couldn’t speak with him right now. Something along the lines of disturbing and interrupting the boy’s creative process while building a sand castle.

“Here you go.” Maki put the crown he had weaved onto Issei’s head. “Matsun was just jealous because he wanted one too.” The light-haired male winked.

“It’s true. I always wanted to be crowned flower lord.” the ravenette admitted. It wasn’t long after everyone was wearing a floral crest on top of their heads. Now they might truly be a bunch of hippies. The only things missing were the sandals made of hay and the batik tummy shirts.

“I would dethrone you in a heartbeat.” Oikawa said, and Matsun threw a gras at him.

“You wouldn’t dare. My people would riot.” Issei responded, finding himself eating grass as the brunette retaliated. Later on, everyone started throwing grass at one another, prolonging the time they needed to get to the house considerably.

*********

The farmhouse was built of wood; the wooden blanks darkened from the weather exposure over the years. It was quite big, and upon first glance, it appeared to be the perfect place to stay. But upon further inspection, there was a lot of work to do to repair the damages and make it safe, and they hadn’t entered the building yet.

The windows were all broken; the glass shattered with the shards creating a pretty mosaic that could be considered an abstract work of art. The door was unhinged, and from what Matsun could see, the place was trashed, probably from when the original owners fled or fought and died.

“Man, this place looks worse than the bunker.” Maki commented, breaking the heavy air of silence that, for some unknown reason, had fallen upon them. “On second thought, though, the bunker was worse. I withdraw that statement.”

“You call it.” Issei responded as his eyes skimmed across the area once more.

“Looks like we got a lot of work to do.” Kiyoko piqued in, and from the corner of his eyes Matsun could see Toru roll his eyes.

The brunette was standing right next to Iwaizumi. And in Issei’s opinion, best friends and not even siblings would be so awfully close to each other, unless they had some incest-thing going on, which would be quite disturbing. Matsun wasn’t even sure why his mind was going into that direction right now, but he blamed the apocalypse and the accident for that.

The corners of the ravenette’s mouth perked up: _‘Interesting’,_ he thought when he caught Iwaizumi’s fingers subtly brush over Oikawa’s knuckles. Issei couldn’t wait for some juicy drama to happen, so he could watch the entire _matter_ unfold in front of him like some trash reality TV-show, where everyone experienced second-hand embarrassment but nobody could switch the channel.

Hajime could deny his affections for Toru all he wanted, but Matsun wasn’t fooled by his horribly bad acting skills. There was, without doubt, something going on. Iwaizumi was pining for the pretty brunette and given the fact that the former soldier always seemed to be more concerned about the whereabouts and well-being of his _childhood bestie_ than his wife made it even more obvious. Matsun wasn’t even going to start talking about Oikawa’s crush on his _Iwa-chan_. Just thinking about it was making the entire thing more scandalous and exciting, since Toru was practically a mistress if they had already passed first base and skipped to fourth base. Matsukawa and Maki made a bet on the two, and Issei didn’t want to lose. Maki was sure that they were already screwing each other, whereas Matsun thought their two friends were still only unconsciously exchanging sweet romantic gestures of endearment. He might lose the bet, though.

But was he really going to fanboy over this? Matsukawa gasped, and Maki shot him a questioning look that translated into something close to: _‘What the fuck is wrong with you? Is it the head injury?’_.

“Should we enter?” Hitoka asked with hesitation in her voice, and Iwaizumi cleared his throat.

“Yeah. Let’s clean this place out.” The man said, cautiously taking a step forward, climbing up the stairs. Iwaizumi stepped on the glass shards, making a crunching sound when his boots crushed the splitters further. The soldier halted in his movements and shifted to broadening his steps, aiming for the entry. The group followed Hajime’s lead like baby chicks followed their mother. Their steps were careful, and they didn’t make a single sound.

Inside the house, they found pure chaos. The carpet in the middle of the living room had a deep cut, the curtains were ripped from the rails, piling up on the floor. The sofa was thrown over, and the rather fancy-looking flatscreen TV was broken, ripped out of the wall. It didn’t appear as if a fight had taken place, since there was no blood or any trace of a violent scramble. However, something had happened, although it might have just been looters or the people leaving in a wild panic.

“No zombie so far.” Matsun remarked, and he relaxed his tense shoulders.

“Doesn’t look that bad.” Oikawa assessed, sitting down on a random chair in the room. He sighed a sigh of relief, putting his head on Tobio’s small shoulder.

“I’ll go check upstairs. Matsun: you’ll come with me for back-up.” Iwaizumi motioned, moving upstairs.

“I am flattered that you trust me to keep your ass safe.” Issei shrugged, patting a tense Hajime on the back.

“Safe it.” Huffed Iwaizumi, wishing that you could ask someone else, but he couldn’t really be picky, since the pool of people to choose from was restricted to only two members of his group: Kiyoko and unfortunately one of the most annoying people beside Toru. Iwaizumi could have asked Kiyoko for backup, but…he didn’t know why he was so reluctant to ask her. They were married, after all. She should be his first pick, but…never mind wrecking his head about it.

“In the meantime, we are going to clean up this place a little?” Tadashi suggested, searching for confirmation in the eyes of his group mates. Oikawa made a face at the light and chipper tone of the teenager; it was the classic _‘Do what you want, Freckles’_ kind of face. He was cranky today because he was tired. It could also be his diva-like personality. The dark circles around his eyes spoke volumes, so the former would be Matsun’s first guess.

*********

The house was free of zombies, but apparently not of bugs. It took them half a day to repair the door, and the broken windows and clean the place out. Right now, everyone was settling in quite peacefully, roaming around the house. Matsun and Maki were in the attic, going through the dusted-over cardboard boxes that were neatly stacked over one another in the corners.

They had to leave most of their stuff behind due to the accident, so they looked for devices and gadgets that could be of use.

The dust in the attic made him sneeze now and then when the fuzz tickled his nose, and Issei was also sure that at least one bat and several rodents were calling this place their home. It was warm, but quiet, and the sound of the carton box being ripped open was soothing. It was like they were opening up Christmas presents. Not that Matsukawa had ever really gotten any presents, not even for his birthday, but the mere imagination filled him with joy and anticipation. It caused a weird tightness in his chest. He wasn’t sure if he found it unpleasant or not.

“Look!” Maki exclaimed with an excited sparkle in his eyes.

“Found something?” Matsukawa asked, appearing next to the other.

“It’s a Polaroid camera.” Maki showed him the device, trying to figure out how that old thing worked. It wasn’t like the new ones. It was huge and rather heavy and very unwieldy.

“Let me try.” Offered the raven. Maki handed him the camera, looking at him with expectation and awe when he got it to work.

“These lights show how many pictures you can take until you need to restock it.” Matsun graced his fingers over the small lamps. There were seven in total and four were shining a bright green. Then there was a flash and the strawberry-blonde man blinked. The camera discharged a square paper, which Issei waved around like a fan. After a few minutes of letting it rest in the dark, Matsun revealed the picture he had taken and started laughing at the stupid face Hanamaki was making.

“So what?” Takahiro frowned, taking the camera from Matsun. “You just didn’t catch me on my best side.”

“You sure you have one?” Cackled the other when another flash and the typical sound of the picture being discharged resounded. Now it was Maki’s turn to laugh like a maniac because Matsukawa looked just as ugly as him in the picture, since he caught the raven mid-talking.

“So much to not being photogenic. You are worse.”

“That’s why my parents never took pictures of me.”

Maki’s hearty laughter, that only seconds ago filled the small attic, ceased, and he looked at Matsun with wide eyes. “For real?” He asked, “Your parents never took pictures of you when you were young or on your birthday?” Maki’s parents had practically documented every single step he’d made in his life, even the simplest and most redundant things, so it was beyond his understanding why parents wouldn’t want to capture the pivotal moments of their child growing up.

“Nope.” Issei stressed the mid-back rounded vowel with an exaggerated pop. His birthdays weren’t really celebrated. He only had his mother, and she hadn’t really been a ‘picture’-perfect parent. He didn’t really want to talk about the familiar circumstances he grew up in.

“That’s just sad.” Maki frowned. Was Matsun really okay or had he just come to accept it? It intrigued him, and he wanted to poke a little more.

“Well, I’ve got school pictures.” Issei shrugged his shoulders. The more he started contemplating about it, the less he wanted to be reminded of his childhood. It was sort of sad that no baby or pre-school pictures of him existed. Reminisce was a bad thing, Matsun concluded, because it took him to places in his memory he didn’t want to be.

“That’s not quite the same.” Hanamaki argued, “How was your family? You’ve never told me about them.” Matsukawa knew almost everything about him, but he had never really talked much about himself. He just given him bits and pieces of information that seemed basic and shallow. He hadn’t even told Maki what he used to do for a living.

“Because there’s nothing much to tell.” Issei stated. Why talk about parts of his past he wanted to forget?

“Okay.” The light-haired man nodded dejectedly, adding: “But if you ever wanna talk, I am right here.”

“Sure.” The ravenette smiled.

“Then we’ll have to take tons of photos from now on to make up for the time you haven’t been photographed.” Maki shuffled over to Matsun, leaning into him to take another shot; a nice one in which they both smiled and none of them looked constipated.

In the last one, both of them were pulling funny grimaces. Issei couldn’t place where the warm feeling in his chest was coming from. It was just there, burning warm and strong, blooming and spreading through his entire body. The men were facing each other, and in fact, they were so close, it was about to get weird. None of them pulled away, though, and Issei got to admire every single feature of Hanamaki’s face. The adorable little dimples on his cheeks every time he smiled and the sweet and mocking nature of the curve of his lips had the raven-haired man captivated. His laughters were contagious, even though he sometimes sounded like a dying sheep. Matsun couldn’t help but think he looked mesmerisingly beautiful with the sun rays lightning a part of his face. He touched Maki’s bottom lip with his thumb, stroking over the tender skin. He leaned closer, but the other’s confused choking on words made him realise what he was about to do.

“Eh, Issei?” Takahiro asked, missing the gentle touch when Matsun pulled away as if struck by lightning.

“Let’s join the others, shall we? We still have to fix up a few things in the house.” Matsukawa cleared his throat, trying to change the subject, but it wasn’t as smooth as he would have preferred it to be.

“Yeah... we also need photographic paper for the camera.” Maki lifted the camera to emphasise his point.

“We might find a drug store in town.” Matsun remarked as he walked to the opening to the attic, climbing down the stairs and waiting for his friend to catch up.

*********

“When are you going to talk? Have you been born silent?” Oikawa asked Tobio who was playing with a plushy he had found in the kid’s room that had to have been renovated only recently. The boy met Toru’s eyes, but he just stared.

“Come on, Tobio-chan. Say ‘Toru is the best’” Toru encouraged, squishing Tobio’s face and mimicking a child’s voice. It only made him laugh and squish the brunette’s face in return.

At least Tobio was laughing. He didn’t laugh much, and children were supposed to think of anything as funny, even the totally unfunny pee-a-boo game. Should he should teach Tobio how to calculate and write? The boy wasn’t going to experience the joy or trauma of going to school, so he should teach him all those things deemed unnecessary by some just to give him something close to a normal childhood.

While Oikawa was deep in thought, Tobio threw the plushy into his face.

“Ouch…” deadpanned the brunette, picking the stuffed animal up. It was a cow, but it was cute because of the big eyes.

“Are you tired, Tobio-Chan? You still haven’t had your afternoon nap today.” Oikawa’s voice was gently, and he ran his hand through the boy’s dark locks. Tobio nodded, rubbing at his eyes.

“Then let’s take a nappy.” Toru stood up, walking towards the door, though the child hadn’t moved from his spot. Instead he just turned around, looking at him with expectation in his eyes, reaching both of his tiny arms out.

“Fine. I’ll carry you.” He lifted the boy up, taking him upstairs.

Oikawa put him on the bed, though his behaviour had Oikawa concerned: “What’s wrong Tobio-chan? I thought you were tired.” Tobio was still not letting go of his sleeve, so Toru caved in, sitting down on the bed right next to the boy. “Is it the nightmares?” The brunette asked, but deep down he knew that the night terrors kept Tobio from having a peaceful and restful sleep.

The child sat up, nuzzling his head into Oikawa’s chest, clinging onto him as if he were scared that Toru was going to leave him forever.

“It’s alright Tobio-chan.” The brunette stroked Tobio’s hair, pulling the loose locks behind his ears. “You know, I have nightmares too, but you don’t have to be scared because I’ll protect you. Iwa-chan is going to protect you, and the rest of our friends too.” Then he hummed, “well, maybe not Freckles and Blondie. I wouldn’t necessarily put my faith in them...” Oikawa tapped his finger against his chin, absorbed in his own thoughts. “Want me to read to you. One of the children’s books?” Tobio; however, shook his head.

“Want me to lie down with you until you fall asleep?”

The boy answered with a curt nodding of his head and Toru motioned him to scoop over and briefly let go of him.

It took Tobio some time to fall fast asleep, and the brunette stayed for a while longer, ignoring the cramp in his calf. He leaned back against the headboard of the bed; his eyes scanning the room, taking every single detail in. The nursery was of a decent size; a typical square and without the pitch of the roof restricting the way one would decorate it. One of the walls was painted in a warm pastel orange colour, which made the room more inviting without looking overloaded. There wasn’t a lot of furniture, just the bed – which was too small to fit his legs in —, a baby cot that was located centric close to the other side of the room, a cupboard, a closet and the carpet on with a lot of toys were scattered on. It seemed like the family that had previously lived in this house had just gotten a new family member. Toru wondered what happened to them, but he dropped that thought immediately, otherwise his thoughts would just spiral into the darkest pits possible.

He sneaked a quick peak down a peacefully slumbering Tobio-chan, and he smiled at the eased expression on his face. Sometimes his sleeping expressions had more variety than his conscious face. Toru caressed the boy’s cheek, carefully and quietly wriggling out of the ravenette’s grasp, tiptoeing over to the window to close the curtains and to check whether it was completely and safely closed shut. Then he sneaked out of the room, leaving the door open a crack just in case.

“Is he sleeping?” Toru shrieked at the voice that suddenly appeared right next to him, clasping his hands over his mouth.

“Not so loud. He’ll wake up.” Iwaizumi stated, cocking his head to the side, leaning against the wall with one leg supporting his weight while the other was placed on the wall.

Oikawa was clutching his chest; his breathing ragged: “You scared me!”

“…lower your voice.” Hajime hushed him.

“You scared me.” Toru whisper-yelled with a deep frown, still slightly startled. “And don’t hush me.”

“You look tired.” Commented the raven-haired man; his eyes observing the person opposite from him.

“I am fine.” Oikawa answered nonchalantly, despite the exhaustion clawing at his very being.

“You should rest.” It sounded more like a command than a good-willed statement.

“I told you I am fine.” Assured the brunette, and his voice cracked a bit under the pressure of Iwaizumi’s piercing eyes.

Hajime sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose: “Have you picked a room yet? There are two bedrooms downstairs and three upstairs. The windows in the bedrooms downstairs still need to be fixed, so we locked them for now, so…”

“Are you rooming with Kiyoko?” Toru asked, avoiding eye contact with the other man.

“She is gonna share a room with Hitoka.” The silence between them was heavy, and Iwaizumi was standing very close to him, almost too close. Not that Oikawa minded.

The aisle was empty. They were alone, standing in front of the cracked door to the nursery, just locking eyes.

“So…are you going to share with Tobio-chan and I? Don’t tell me you chose Freckles over me” Toru narrowed his eyes, and Iwaizumi huffed out a laugh.

“No.” The raven-haired male stated simply, and Oikawa smiled, leaning his head against his shoulder, just resting his forehead in the crook of the other’s neck, breathing in the musky scent. The strong fingers that massaged Toru’s neck made his body relax as his taunt muscles were soothed out. He liked and missed that kind of intimacy. Iwa-chan’s touch made his heart flutter, though the feeling was always accompanied with an all too familiar tightness within his chest. It was frustrating.

*********

Hitoka drew circles into the sand with a twig, sitting on a tree stump and enjoying the sun warming up her skin. There was no zombie roaming around in the area, but she couldn’t be too sure because those things could suddenly appear out of nowhere.

A shadow appeared over her, blocking the sun. The blonde girl lifted her head up, making direct eye contact with Kiyoko’s bright blue orbs. Yachi shrieked and jumped up, a blush creeping onto her cheeks because of the embarrassing noise that had just slipped past her throat.

The raven-haired woman chuckled at her reaction, sitting down on the stump and motioning for Hitoka to sit down next to her. The blonde acted kind of self-conscious and nervous around Kiyoko for two reasons. Reason number one: The black-haired woman was beautiful. Reason number two: Hitoka might have developed a mild – or rather astronomically huge – crush on the pretty soldier. Could someone blame her for that?

Hitoka had always known that she wasn’t into guys, and she had a hard to time to come to terms with it. She had never had the courage to come out to anyone and not even Tadashi knew, even though he was one of her closest friends. Her parents had been quite conservative and despite seemingly having no problem with other children having that kind of _‘_ lifestyle’ – she hated when her parents or anyone for that matter used that term – they would have never accepted their own child being queer.

However, the people in her group looked like they wouldn’t mind her sexuality at all. She was comfortable around the goofy bunch. They would accept her for who she was. Matsun and Maki, for instance, always acted like they were a couple. They did all these couple-things such as cuddling at night and hugging each other at the weirdest of moments, seemingly reading each other’s thoughts and going as far as to sometimes finish each other’s sentences. Hitoka wrongly assumed they had known each other for years.

Kiyoko and Hajime, on the other hand, were the complete opposite. Perhaps they wanted to get a divorce, but the apocalypse stalled the process. But wouldn’t that mean they could just annul their marriage in a mutual agreement, since there was no court or judge that could do that anymore? Perhaps they were in love with each other, but kept it private. Both of them were quite aloof. Hitoka wished she would know.

“Are you doing okay?” Kiyoko asked in that gentle voice of hers, tearing the blonde out of her thoughts.

“YES, OF COURSE!” Yachi shouted, jumping up again. She sat down as fast as she had shot up when she realised she was embarrassing herself for the third time this day.

“You seem to be in a good mood.” The raven chuckled, and Hitoka stared at her, trying to memorise the breathtaking smile of Kiyoko.

“You’re so pretty.” The blonde breathed out, clasping her hands over her mouth to shut herself up. She didn’t mean to say that out loud. She wanted to keep it in her head, not voice it. “Eh—in a none weird way.” What?!

Kiyoko laughed again: “How can someone be pretty in a ‘none weird way’?”

“I don’t know!” Hitoka groaned, leaning against the other girl. She wasn’t sure whether she did it consciously or unconsciously, but she wanted to enjoy the brief moment of skinship. It wasn’t like the ravenette would ever reciprocate her feelings, anyway, so it was better to let a crush stay a crush.

*********

Oikawa didn’t know how and why he ended up pinned against the floor in the attic, but the heated gaze that he received from Iwaizumi eliminated all the remaining questions and the doubts in his head.

When the velvety soft lips of the ravenette man met his, it was electrifying and all-encompassing; like every single fibre in his being got a sudden touch sensitivity upgrade.

Hajime’s hands were rough and warm, ghosting over every inch of Toru’s touch-starved body. They had lost their clothes somewhere in between the desperate groping, the frantic rutting against each other and the lustful touches, suckles and bites on the lips.

“Weren’t you the one who said that we should stop this?” Toru muttered, reciprocating the hungry kisses just as eagerly. Iwaizumi’s calloused fingers rubbed his nipple, caressing and pinching the sensitive nub, drawing out a swallowed gasp from Oikawa.

“Want me to stop?” Hajime whispered; his voice low and sultry. The soldier was avoiding answering his question, but Oikawa was weak to this voice; a deep guttural sound so primal, it should be illegal.

“Nah.” The brunette smiled as he hooked his ankles around the raven to gain leverage and roll them over.

Iwaizumi was about to complain as he found their positions reversed, but Toru hushed him, putting his fingers to Iwaizumi’s lips. Then he trailed a path of wet and open-mouthed kisses from his collarbones down his muscular chest to his v- line. Oikawa halted, gazing up at a shallow breathing Iwaizumi.

The brunette grinned sneakily as he pulled at his lover’s pants. He should feel guilty for fooling around with a married man, but he figured that Hajime and he weren’t equally guilty in that respect. Toru wasn’t in a relationship, so why should he hold back if he wanted that man. Hajime was the one that should worry about his conscience. He was the one who shouldn’t do this. Oikawa even came to accept the fact that Iwa-chan wasn’t going to unlock that damn closet he had been hiding in for years any time soon, and there were times when Toru just wanted to break that god-forsaken door down and practically force the man out, but he couldn’t make that decision for Hajime. Instead, he had to take what the other was willing to give and if it meant hurting the feelings of someone else, so be it. At this point, Oikawa didn’t care anymore. Life was too short to step back and watch.

The brunette mouthed the tent, hiding beneath Iwaizumi’s boxers before he pulled the fabric down, freeing the rock-hard rod that basically begged to be sucked on and have Toru wrap his lips around. He licked at the warm and firm flesh tentatively, leisurely stroking it with his hand.

“Ahh—“ The ravenette tried to suppress the groans that escaped his throat. His fingers were clutching Oikawa’s hair, massaging his scalp while the knuckles of his other hand turned white from scratching his fingernails over the hard wooden floor. The brunette bobbed his head, deep-throating the other man, knowing full well Iwaizumi loved it when he took him deep.

“F-Fuck, keep going like th-that.” The raven’s ragged puffs of breath spurred Toru on, making him feel like Iwa-chan was the one at his mercy. Oikawa didn’t even mind the hand that kept pushing his head down onto the erect cock, hitting the back of his throat with every shallow thrust.

The sudden creaking of the ladder; however, had the two men freeze, and they shuffled around, looking for their discharged clothes.

“Are you up there? You’re not fooling around, are you?” Maki joked; his voice resounding as the entry creaked open, and a strawberry-blonde mop of hair appeared. Toru and Hajime stood there frozen still with rumpled clothes, trying to look presentable. Too late did Oikawa realise he was wearing Iwaizumi’s shirt.

“There you are!” Maki exclaimed, “we’ve been waiting for you to come down and eat, but you were nowhere to be foun— “, Hanamaki paused, cocking his head to the side as he regarded the two men in front of him. Their clothes were crinkled, their hair tousled, and their overall behaviour raised suspicions. “Are you okay? Did I interrupt something?”

“WHAT?! NO! W-WE ARE FINE!! NOTHING HAPPENED. WE FOUND A WALKIE-TALKIE. YOU WEREN’T INTERRUPTING ANYTHING.” Oikawa laughed awkwardly, and his smile managed to look forced and embarrassed at the same time.

“Okaaaay geez. You don’t need to yell at me.” Hanamaki rubbed at his ears, “My hearing is just fine, you know, though I might need a hearing aid now.” he commented, narrowing his eyes. Iwaizumi was quiet, and Oikawa was doing a terrible job at almost everything. Maki had believed him to be a better liar.

“We found a Walkie-Talkie.” Toru repeated as if it was some extraordinarily unique news.

“You already said that…” They were definitely acting suspicious. “Did you get a change of wardrobe? You’re wearing the exact same shirt Hajime was wearing today…” Those two truly contributed their part to his daily dose of entertainment.

“We wear matching outfits sometimes?” Oikawa’s attempt to provide a cohesively plausible and believable answer failed. Iwaizumi rubbed his eyes with his fingers, since face palming himself would raise even more suspicions. However, he doubted Maki was buying any of this. The cocky smirk adorning his face was proof of that.

“But you don’t match.” Argued Hanamaki, wallowing in their embarrassment.

“W-Well, that’s because we don’t wear them simultaneously.” Toru made it sound like it was the most obvious thing in the world, waving his hand theatrically to put emphasis on his argument. Maki was about to break out into a fit of laughter.

“That’s not the definition of ‘wearing matching outfits’. Besides, since when is your name _Iwaizumi Hajime_?” The light-haired man pointed at the name that was stitched into the left breast pocket of the shirt.

Maki smirked, amused at the men’s silence. He ducked down on his way to climb down the wobbly ladder, disappearing from their sight. But before the sigh of relief made its way past Toru’s and Hajime’s lips, Takahiro’s head appeared again.

“You should seriously work on your excuses.” Maki snickered. It seemed like he had won the bet against Matsun, and he was so going to rub it in with an extra pound of sea salt. The last thing Oikawa’s ears picked up on was Maki yelling _‘Get your ass over here Issei, you owe me cream puffs,’_ and Matsun answering _‘No way! I expected it to be more of a slow-burn romcom thing’_.

*********

  
“Where are all the others?” Oikawa asked when he joined Maki and Matsun at the table in the living room.

“They’re outside.” Issei answered. The raven-haired man stared at his friend, resting his face in the base of the thumb; his eyes sparkling with expectation.

“Why are you giving me that weird look? It’s creepy. Stop it.” Frowned the brunette, but the other just snickered.

“So…about the Walkie-Talkie – does it work?” Maki asked when Iwaizumi too finally emerged from upstairs. They came down separately, but the air around the two was still so sexually charged. It was like he was watching porn without the sex scene…it was awkward to say the least.

“Walkie-Talkie?” Toru cocked his head to the side, and Iwaizumi looked equally confused.

“Yeah, the Walkie-Talkie. Remember that hand-held, portable two-way radio transceiver that was developed during WWII.” Takahiro explained, but they still didn’t catch on, so he tried to be more _specific._ “In the attic, when I interrupted your bonding time?”

”You mean _mating_ time.” Coughed Matsun, and Oikawa choked on his spit.

“We didn’t check.” Hajime grunted. Embarrassed. It was probably the guilt gnawing at him, crawling beneath his skin.

“Guess they were busy checking something else out.” Maki commented, jumping on the train. He didn’t really care what other people did in their spare time, and he had already suspected that they were fucking, but he still pitied Kiyoko because she didn't deserve to be cheated on. On the other hand, it wasn’t his place to get involved. It wasn’t his business whether they were rolling around in the sheets – or attic – following their extra-marital activities, but they could at least try to be more careful.

“Good one.” Matsun high-fived his friend. “Now get the Walkie-Talkie. I wanna know if it still works.”

“Why? There’s only one, so no one would receive our message, anyway.” Toru answered, his voice bored as he tried to play down the embarrassment.

“Where there’s one, there’s two. Someone else may have the other one. We could update each other on apocalyptic affairs.” The ravenette reasoned, “I thought you were the smart one here. Or has our Iwa-chan already fucked out all your brain cells. You must be quite wild.”

“Apocalyptic journalism – the career of the future.” Maki remarked, and the cynicism in his statement was hard to miss.

“My brain cells are fine, as if sex—” Oikawa stopped himself, “oh, I know what you're doing, and it's not working.” He stuck out his tongue and Matsun mimicked the gesture.

After Iwaizumi got the Walkie-Talkie, they changed the batteries just in case, switching the little button on, hoping to receive a signal.

“I don’t think it’s working.” Matsun sighed. They had been sitting on the sofa for at least 10 minutes now, talking into the device.

_“—s —ur da——“_

“Hello!” Oikawa shouted into the Walkie-Talkie, letting go of the button again to wait for another signal.

_“—llo? Wh—e —re?”_

“Hello? Whose there?”

”Is it tone for a knock-knock joke already?” Matsun snickered.

”Shut up.”

 _“—re are Asa—— a— —uu Nis——a.”_ The drowned-out voices that resounded through the speaker were faint and barely audible. All they could hear was the static from the device.

_“We— are — big tr— —h—.”_

“Where are you?” Iwaizumi asked again.

“I don’t understand anything.” Maki remarked, trying to concentrate on the words.

 _“I—— any—— ou— —hre —“_ Both voices were male, and they sounded desperate.

_”Miya—i ———ashuku.’_

Matsukawa snatched the radio transceiver out of the other’s hands: “The connection is really bad.” 

_“—n’t ———— unnecess— ——poli—— statio—n“_

“It’s useless.” Toru huffed.

_“ris— —th— —— we —“_

_“—eed help! —t’s urgent.”_

The four men exchanged a look when the voice disappeared, keeping the silence in the room for a few seconds, until Maki jumped up, remembering the last words’ _help_ and _urgent:_ “I think they are in trouble.”

”We should look for them.” Hajime stated, getting up.

“They could be anywhere.” Matsun stated.

“No. It’s a Walkie-Talkie that most police officers use, and I’ve seen a picture of a guy, wearing a police uniform.” Toru argued, pointing at a picture across the room.

“So, they might be trapped inside the police station.” Maki said.

Oikawa nodded curtly: “They must have picked up on the noise of the correspondent device.”

“I wished we could just google where the next police station is.” Sighed Matsukawa, slumping back into the couch.

“The next village is only about 5 kilometres north from here, and I think they said Miyagi.” Iwaizumi said, switching the device off.

”Miyagi prefecture has a geographic area of about seven thousand square kilometres. How are we any closer to knowing where they are exactly?” Matsukawa frowned.

“The town has a local police station, and the man who lived here was wearing a police uniform.” Iwaizumi answered, “What are the odds for them to not be at this town’s police station? I am 60 percent positive that they mentioned the word _police station_.”

“60 percent isn’t that much.” Remarked Matsun. “Can’t you be 85 percent positive or 97 percent?”

”The guy in the picture doesn’t necessarily live here. He could be a son of the actual residents?” Oikawa pondered, tapping his finger against his chin.

Iwaizumi shrugged in response: “Whatever. Checking the place out won’t hurt.”

“Wait… they could be criminals.” Oikawa remarked, side-glancing his friends.

“Or they just took refuge inside the police station.” Grunted the soldier. They could have also gone to check the place out, since a police station offered a handful of useful gear and weapons.

“We’ll just give them the benefit of the doubt. We don’t have a car, though.” Maki said.

“What about bikes?” Oikawa offered cheerfully. “Wait, I hate bicycling.”

“Yes, there are. Bikes for children. I doubt any of us fits on a bicycle constructed for children.” Deadpanned Iwaizumi, “We might have to walk. Let me check the map.”

Oikawa scoffed: “I rather walk than ride a bicycle.”

“Sounds like a double-date. Count me in.” Matsun commented, jumping up.

“A double-date on a rescue mission? Sounds like fun.” Takahiro cheered, adding: “Besides, we wanted to get photo paper, anyway.” He linked his arm with Issei’s, pointing at the door and pulling him towards the main door.

*********

“Do you really think it was a good idea for everyone of our group to tag along?” Maki commented as they hid behind a yellow truck while several zombies roamed the street, scenting the air.

They had got some supplies from a convenience store, and Hanamaki had even found what he had been looking for.

They were at a crossroad where several cars blocked the street. The zombies mingled around the area, wandering about, just doing zombie-related stuff.

”I don’t, but everyone apparently seemed to need something.” Matsun whispered as his eyes skimmed the road, looking for a possible pathway.

”It’ll be fine. I left a welcome note in case someone else stumbles onto the farm.” Oikawa commented, appearing right next to Matsukawa.

With sarcasm leaking through his voice, Maki answered: ”Wow, how thoughtful of you, Toru. Where would we be without you?”

”We’d be lost.” Matsun joked, grinning.

The brunette frowned, semi-offended: ”Can’t you appreciate my efforts for once?”

”We do appreciated your efforts, but don’t you think it’s too dangerous for Tobio to be here?.” Takahiro’s eyes fell on the small boy next to Toru.

Oikawa pursed his lips, looking for a suitable answer: ”I’ll take care of him,” he said. He just wanted to keep an eye on Tobio-chan. He didn't like not knowing where he was.

”Seems like you’ve developed some parental feelings.” Issei snorted.

”He was reluctant at first and said that he wasn’t going to play his babysitter.” Tadashi piqued in, and Oikawa pushed the teen’s face away.

”Nobody asked for your input, Freckles.”

Iwaizumi was annoyed by the constant whispering and bickering behind him, so he hissed: ”Can you shut up for once? We are surrounded by zombies and you guys are chitchatting.”

Then, the former soldier put his hand up, motioning for his group to get ready. Then he peeked over the engine bonnet, signalling everyone to follow him to the next car a few metres away.

The raven-haired man kneeled down on the ground and laid the map out in front of him: “We need to get to the centre. Let’s avoid the main road. There are too many zombies.”

”What about this route?” Matsun asked, drawing the path with his finger, “It would be quite a detour, but we should be able to bypass most of the zombies.”

Kiyoko considered the suggestion: ”It’s getting dark. I don’t think it would be wise to choose a detour,” Kiyoko commented, and the two men hummed.

“Ehh guys?” Maki asked, but everyone was more drawn to the map. A bunch of zombies was coming their way, and even though they didn’t appear to have noticed them yet, it concerned him, nonetheless.

The undead were scenting the air again more vigorously as they became more agitated. It was like they came back to life, awakening from their decades-long sleep like The Sleeping Beauty, only that those groaning zombies weren't anywhere close to pretty.

”We could pass the church and only trek part of the way through the woods.” Matsukawa suggested, concentrating on the map. Everyone was more focused on the map than on their surroundings.

”Hey guys, listen. There’s—“ Maki hissed; his voice barely above a whisper. He didn't want to expose them.

Iwaizumi sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose: ”It would still take too long, maybe if we—“

”Guys! Sorry to interrupt your _chitchat_ , but there’s a crowd of unwanted guest coming our way.” Maki shouted. The sudden strain on his vocal cords had him breathless.

Everyone’s heads simultaneously shot into the direction to which Hanamaki was pointing at. The undead heard his loud voice and were immediately drawn to it as they charged at the group. Their eyes looked eerie, and they were now solely focused on their next prey.

No one needed to tell the group to run. They did it instinctively and without a second thought. Their bodies started moving, and before they even realised it, they sprinted down the street; their sneakers clattering on the asphalt.

”At least now we don’t have to argue about which route to take.” Oikawa commented mid running. Iwaizumi had picked Tobio up at some point, so they could increase their pace. There was no way the boy was able to keep up with the speed.

The number of zombies that were chasing after them increased with every street they passed, and those monsters were by no means slow. Iwaizumi saw that they were about to reach their initial destination, but they came face to face with another hoard that had gathered around in front of the small police station, trying to get inside. However, the zombies now refocused, picking up on another visual and audible stimulus. Their eyes turned towards Iwaizumi’s group.

There was no place to hide, so the only thing they could do was try to outrun them, which was easier said than done, since a few members of his group were falling behind, namely Tadashi, Toru and even Matsun, who looked like he was about to pass out.

Iwaizumi turned his head towards Kiyoko: “We need to split up.”

“But one of your rules states that we should never split up.” The blonde girl who was running next to the ravenette woman, commented.

“Forget about that stupid rule.” Hajime huffed, “You two remember our set meet-up spot when something doesn't go as planned, right?”

“Alright,” Kiyoko nodded, grabbing Yachi by the hand to change their direction.

Iwaizumi slowed down, noticing that it was becoming difficult to run with Tobio clinching onto him so tightly.

When he had his remaining members attention, he spoke up; his voice loud and clear: “Listen up, guys! We're splitting up.” He grasped Toru’s wrist, taking one last look at Matsun, Maki and Tadashi.

“I guess we meet at that big ass oak tree then,” Issei stated, pulling himself together as he picked up the pace again. He could hear the growls, and the noises were too close to his ear for his liking.

Iwaizumi turned to the left, diverging from the rest while pulling Oikawa with him.

Maki grabbed Yamaguchi by the arm, urging him on to run faster. His eyes widened a fraction when several zombies appeared in front of them, cutting off their escape route.

“Issei?” Takahiro's voice was shaking.

“I can't anymore.” Tadashi huffed as his speed decreased, slowing Hanamaki who was dragging him down too. “Just leave me behind.”

“What the fuck, no way!” Takahiro yelled; his hold and pull on the teenager’s arm increasing.

There wasn't much time to think because the homicidal zombie hoard was closing in on them from behind while about a handful was in front of them, looking equally blood thirsty.

Takahiro was getting tired, and his muscles ached. Tadashi was heavy, and it took a lot of extra strength to pull him along; strength the light-haired man didn't have.

 _‘Think of something, Takahiro. Think,’_ he reprimanded himself. His eyes fell on Issei, who didn't seem as fine as he pretended to be. Running shortly after a head injury took a toll on the tall man's physical condition.

Then he it appeared to him. He had picked up a fully charged and unlocked phone at the store. He fished the device out of his pockets, turning up the volume. He pressed play, playing a random playlist. The music blared through the speakers of the smartphone, and Hanamaki let it drop to the ground as softly as he could.

The zombies behind them were confused, eying the device and halting in their pursuit. It was just a means to buy some time, though, since the audible stimuli only distracted them for a short moment.

Matsukawa took down most of the zombies that were in front of them, but it was only straining his body even more.

Then he saw it: a spark of hope. The end to their predicament. An open gate. The black-haired male pointed at the iron gate to their right: “There! Just follow me.”

He rushed to the entrance, waiting for Hanamaki to push a very exhausted Tadashi inside. He closed the gate, remaining outside, and Maki was confused.

The strawberry-blonde watched as Matsun shoved the latch to the side, locking the gate. “What are you doing!” He shouted, rattling on the bars.

Issei smiled at him, “You know where we meet up, right?” His voice was light and without concern. Maki nodded, trying to unlock the gate again.

“See you later than. Don't you dare die.” The ravenette winked, whistling towards the zombie hoard, diverting their attention away from the gate.

Hanamaki watched his best friend pacing down the street, followed by the zombies. The tears pricked at his eyes, and his throat constricted. “Wait! Issei!” His screams went unanswered; however. He lost sight of Matsun, and his head started spinning.

He sank down the ground, leaning his head against the cool bars of the gate. He noticed Tadashi who sat down beside him; his face filled with worry.

“I am sorry. It’s my fault. You should have left me there. I just dragged you down.” Yamaguchi had his head hang low and his fist clenched. His voice cracked, and he was barely able to talk because of the tiresome exercise.

“No! It's not…” Takahiro paused, rolling his eyeballs up to stop the tears from falling, “It's not your fault. You don't have to feel guilty. We're friends. Friends don't leave each other behind.” Maki didn't know the teen too well, but he still considered him his friend. They were members of the same group for weeks now.

There was a brief moment of silence between them before the brunette spoke up again: “He is going to be fine.”

Maki hummed, but the sick feeling of anxiety, boiling in his stomach remained. He was scared. He wasn't used to not being with Matsun. The ravenette had always been there; had always looked out for him and saved his sorry ass while Hanamaki couldn't do the same for him because he froze when facing a zombie.

The tears that rolled down his cheeks blurred his vision. If he had any strength left in his body, then he would climb over the gate and run after Matsun.

**OoooO**

Akaashi paced around in his room; the agitation boiling inside his chest eating at him as he tried to keep his cool. He was hurt. He could understand Kotarou’s reluctance — the ignorance he wished to hold on to, but he went too far in insinuating Keiji didn’t care.

The raven heard a soft knock on the door, and he knew it was Bokuto. It sounded hesitant, and Akaashi wasn’t really used to Bokuto knocking. Usually the man would just barge in, no matter the circumstances.

The door creaked open, and as expected, Bokuto entered, letting the firm wooden plank fall shut behind him with a thud. Akaashi had his back turned. He didn’t want to see him.

Instead, he focused on the trees outside, watching as the leaves rustled and moved rhythmically to the whistles of the wind. He sensed Bokuto’s presence come up behind him, but his eyes were glued to the tress.

Kotarou’s arms sneaked around Keiji’s waist, and his warm breath tickled the raven-haired man’s skin.

“Keiji, I am sorry.” Bokuto placed a kiss between the junction of his shoulder and neck; his lips ghosting above the spot. “I didn’t mean it.”

“Are you sure you didn’t mean it?” Scoffed Keiji, still unwilling to face his fiancé. His fingers scratched over the surface of the windowsill, noticing the amount of dust. The small fluffy balls of fuzz and dirt collected at the edges of the sill, and Akaashi had to think about the fact that planet earth once emerged from dust and debris that clumped together due to the force of gravity.

“I didn’t. I…” the dual-haired man paused, tightening his grip around Akaashi’s waist, pressing his face into the back of his neck. “I just didn’t want it to be true. I don’t want you to be right on this one.”

“I don’t want to be right either, but we can’t ignore it.” The black-haired man answered; his voice flat. “You hurt me.”

“I know, and I am sorry.” Bokuto sucked at Akaashi’s skin; one of his hands wandering from his waist to his chest. The intimate contact felt nice.

“It takes more than that for me to forgive you.” The ravenette whispered, leaning his head back to give the other better access.

“I love you Keiji.” Bokuto’s hand travelled beneath Akaashi’s shirt, caressing his chest. Keiji always gave in when Kotarou said those words.

He felt Bokuto press himself against his back, nibbling on his earlobe. “We should move that to the bed.” The taller man’s sultry voice caused Akaashi’s goose bumps, and he then turned around to face his fiancée.

Akaashi kissed him, pressing his tongue against the Bokuto’s soft lips. The kiss quickly turned into a rather obscene exchange of saliva, and at some point, the ravenette pulled away. “Yeah, we should move this to the bed.” To bed honest, Akaashi hadn’t even realised how sexually frustrated he was. It had been quite a while since their last intimate moment together.

Moving onto the bed, Bokuto crawled on top of Akaashi, lifting him up to continue their make-out session; strong arms resting on the smaller’s back. They wantonly rutted their groins together; a line of curses and moans making it past their lips. Both men were painfully hard inside the restricted confinement of their pants. Akaashi couldn’t really think straight at the moment. All he wanted was sexual gratification, and Bokuto was just too eager to give him just that. Keiji pulled at his fiancé’s shirt; a silent demand to strip.

They laid on the bed, stark naked now and still in a sexually charged haze. Akaashi clinched to the taller man’s back, dragging his nails down his soft skin. Their bare chests rubbed against each other; their skin heated and sensitive to every touch. Bokuto jerked them both off; his pace fast and his grasp firm around their shafts.

“Ah…ah.” Akaashi moaned; his eyes closed as he was approaching his climax.

“You’re ngh so cute when you’re ahh all hot ‘n bothered for me.” Kotarou’s voice was deep, and he groaned into Keiji’s ear; his breathing ragged.

“Ngh ‘m gonn—Ah cum!!” Akaashi orgasmed, and the euphoric feeling hit him like a shock wave, travelling through his entire body as he ravelled in the sensation. Bokuto came shortly after, riding their climax out as his ejaculate mixed with Akaashi’s on the raven’s belly and chest.

“We need to do that more often.” Kotarou collapsed on Keiji, snuggling into him; his snoring filling Akaashi’s ears. He sighed, lying there, even though Bo’s weight was crashing him. Bokuto was always prone to fall asleep when his orgasm was intense. Keiji ran his fingers through Kou’s hair that was losing the silver colour. Only his tips were still silver. The ravenette didn’t mind, though. Bokuto was hot either way.

A scream of agony startled the couple awake, and they scrambled out of the bed and getting dressed up when Kuro barged in.

“I am not going to comment on the fact that you’ve just fucked because we’ve got a serious problem here.” Kuro said; his voice uncharacteristically panicked.

“What’s wrong!?” Bokuto asked in a worry-laced tone and a frown on his face.

“Is it…” Keiji didn’t need to finish because Testurou just nodded in confirmation: “Yeah, it’s Natsu. She’s turned.” Kuro’s expression was serious, but there was something else underneath — something Akaashi couldn’t put a finger on.

The colour drained from Bokuto’s face, and Keiji was equally pale when Kuro said the words none of them was prepared for; the words none of them ever wanted to hear.

Bokuto clasp his hand over his mouth, and he looked sick. Keiji’s heart sank, but he followed the tall raven to Natsu’s room, anyway. Hinata was completely out of it. His small body was shaking uncontrollably, and his expression showed every emotion at once: Shock, confusion, fear, agitation, incomprehension, betrayal. It was a mosaic of raging emotions. It was like he lived through every stage of grief at this very moment.

Then, the ginger’s eyes turned empty, as if he just lost the reason to keep on living. Akaashi had to cast his eyes away from Shouyou’s petite frame.

The boy was leaning against the wall, both his arms and both his legs sprawled out, falling to the side in complete surrender.

It was a heart-breaking sight, and Keiji’s eyes watered. He realised the wheezing and groaning noise behind the door, and he couldn’t keep his body up anymore. Akaashi sunk down on his knees, eyes fixated at the door and his ears concentrated on the rattle that escaped the ginger-haired girl’s throat; concentrated on the scratching on the door frame.

This wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair. Akaashi had a hard time to breathe, and his vision became blurry until he felt a pair of firm hands grasp his arms, and a familiar voice talk to him, though at first he only heard the agonising loud buzzing in his ears.

 _‘Kei—ji?’_ , _‘Keiji!’_ Akaashi blinked, waking up from his trance-like state.

The worst of the worst had become reality, and the raven wished he could turn back time. He wished nothing had ever happened — not Natsu turning into a zombie and not this god forsaken shit-show of an apocalypse. It felt like a morbid and sick joke, making him realise yet again the gravity of the reality they now had to survive in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Feel free to leave comments and kudos <3  
> Next update can be expected in about two to three weeks. 😘  
> Tell me if the pacing is too slow because I got the feeling it is...


	12. We Grieve and Say Goodbye while Others Make New Allies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello and happy New Year! I haven't posted in a while, so here's an extra long chapter. Thank you for all the lovely comments! 😘💕

“Shou?” Bokuto touched the motionless boy by the shoulder, trying to get him out of his lethargic state. He spoke in a soft voice, though the ginger didn't respond. He kept staring at the wall at the other side of the room; his eyes distant and his face void of emotion.

The grunting behind the door continued, and the soft scratches and hollow knocks from Natsu were ringing through Bokuto’s ears, leaving a foul taste in his mouth.

“Let's go somewhere else, Shouyo.”

The boy still showed no reaction. He remained at his spot against the wall, and it got significantly harder to bare the pitiful sight.

“What am I supposed to do now?” Hinata muttered. His voice was hoarse. His lips were dry, and he felt the weight of Bokuto’s hand on his shoulders, but this time, it did nothing to cheer him up.

“Mom’s dead. Dad’s dead,” the pools of tears in his eyes streamed down his face, making it look like the dam to a river burst as the water broke through the cracks in the concrete. “And now, Natsu…” the ginger paused. He wanted to swallow his tongue and choke on it. “Natsu is gone too.” The irrefutable truth in his statements weighed heavily on his soul and heart. “I am all alone now.”

Hinata started hyperventilating, breaking down once more. He couldn't describe the emptiness that squeezed his heart to the point of causing an opporessive ache within the confinement that was his ripcage. As if someone stabbbed him with a knife to forcefully removed a part of him and cut out half of his soul. It was an agonising feeling; a feeling of distress, anguish and despair, but no emotion carried enough meaning to describe it.

“You’re not alone!” Bokuto shouted as he shook the red-haired teen almost too violently. “You. Are. Not. Alone.” He emphasised every syllable, and his gaze was stern and determined.

Shouyo choked on his tears, but he looked up at the man.

“You’re not alone, you hear me.”

Hinata’s bloodshot eyes wandered to the faces that were staring at him, showing an expression that could be best described as being lost, in pain and worried. Hinata didn't realise that Izumi had sat down right next to him. He was holding his hand, and his eyes were filled with tears as his face morphed into one of empathy and grief.

Akaashi was kneeling on the ground, and his usually stoic face showed unmitigated sorrow. Even Kuro seemed shaken, mostly by his reaction. The raven-haired man was leaning against the wall with his leg propped up, and he looked up at the ceiling while one of his hands grabbed onto Yaku's shoulder. Maybe for some kind of mental support.

“I know it won't ever be the same without Natsu, and no words can ever make it better because you’ll never be entirely whole again. Time will just make it more bearable.” Bokuto knew what he was talking about, since he lost his mom. His mother had been his everything, his anchor, his safeguard. When she died, Bokuto had died too, but Keiji had been there, not leaving him even when he hit rock-bottom. The circumstances might be different, but the outcome was the same. “The only thing we can do is to keep Natsu’s memory alive. Don’t say you’re alone. You still have us, and we won't abandon you.”

Bokuto pulled Hinata into a tight hug. He didn't know what else to do because dealing with the loss of a loved one was hard. The ginger nodded, mumbling something inaudible into his chest as he stained his shirt with his warm tears.

“We should head downstairs.” Akaashi said, and Bokuto nodded, prompting to carry the small teen downstairs.

“They’re sleeping.” Yaku whispered when he closed the bedroom door. His eyes were red, and even though he didn't shed a tear, it was apparent that it took him a lot of effort to hold them back. He wanted to be strong.

Hinata and Izumi had immediately fallen asleep, spent from the weeping and sobbing.

Akaashi sighed and rubbed his face. The fatigue hit him full-force, and the events of this day took a strain on his physical and emotional state. The weight of Bokuto’s supportive arm around his shoulders was reassuring, but at the same time, Akaashi feared that one day, he might never feel the heaviness of those taut muscles again. Just the thought of it depressed the ravenette, pulling him into a string of endless what-if scenarios.

Kuro cleared his throat, disrupting the thick air of melancholy. “We eventually have to, you know…” He couldn't say it, but everyone knew anyway.

“Yeah.” Bokuto nodded, pursing his lips as he pushed his face into Akaash’s neck. The question wasn't about what to do, but about who was going to do it.

“I can't.” Yaku stated. His hands were balled into fists, and his posture showed his frustration. They fell quiet again, and the silence made for the rattling and grunts to become louder, suffocating the house in a dense fog of shared misery.

“I’ll do it.” Bokuto announced then, startling the others. He stepped away from Keiji to come back seconds later with a ball pein hammer. With determination, the man walked up the creaking stairs, and the rest followed him.

Keiji was sceptical and decided to stop his fiancée before he could enter the room in which Natsu was. “Are you sure?” A crease formed on Akaashi's face, and his voice was laced with concern. He eyed the other's choice of weaponry, but it wasn't like he had an entire weapon arsenal to choose from in the first place.

“I am.”

“You don't have to do it. I can do it.” Kuro said; his expression showing equal concern for his friend.

Bokuto smiled, though it was less radiant than normal, but given the circumstances, the sadness in his eyes was understandable. “I got this.”

Kotarou took a deep breath, trying to drown out the rapid movements behind the door. He touched the doorknob, memorising how cool the surface felt and how dull the fading colour of the gilded knob looked.

Bokuto’s mind drifted off to the likely sight of the little ginger-haired girl. Would she have lost the brightness in her forest-green eyes and would her skin be drained of colour, covered in those weird blotches? Most likely. The only thing left of her would be the human shell of the girl she once was. The mental image — Bokuto couldn't help but make up in his head — of a girl that was unable to recognise him didn't help to ease his nerves. He wasn't sure if someone could ever mentally prepare oneself to smash a child’s skull in with a hammer, even if said child wasn't human anymore.

“No.” Akaashi's said; his grip tight around Bokuto’s wrist. “You don't have to do this. We can just leave. That's what we intended to do from the start.” He didn't want Kotarou to do something like this. He couldn't let him do it. It would scar him for life.

“Do you really think leaving her in that state is the right thing to do?” Kuro asked with a healthy amoun of scepticism.

“Does it really matter?”

“It does.” Kuro sounded angered by Akaashi's words.

“No, not really.” Akaashi stated with a deadpan look.

“We can't just leave. It would be cruel. She needs a proper burial.” Morisuke argued, siding with Kuro on the matter. Natsu deserved better. Not giving her a place to rest felt wrong in so many ways.

“Then you should do it.” Akaashi waited for an answer, but Yaku cast his eyes away. “I see,” was all he then said to the shorter man.

Bokuto let go of the hammer, sandwiching Keiji’s face between his hands, stroking his cheeks. “Keiji, he’s right. We can't leave her like that. I already said that I’d do it. I am gonna be fine.”

The ravenette didn’t like the soothing tone of his voice. “No. You may think a burial will help deal with the grief, but if you can't visit it, what's the point? Even though she's gone, I know you won't be able to hit her with that hammer. I know you. Stop thinking you're doing an act of mercy. She's dead. Whether she's a walking corpse or a corpse buried beneath the ground doesn’t matter because she will remain dead either way.” The zyniscm was hard to miss.

“What are you saying? Of course, there's a difference. There's a big difference between this,” Bokuto motioned to the door where the scratching and hissing was coming from, “and a ‘corpse buried beneath the ground’. Don't you think Shouyo would want Natsu to have a grave?” Bokuto’s golden eyes were piercing, and Akaashi wasn't sure if he could keep his gaze. Giving in; however, wasn't an option.

“I don't get you?” Akaashi addressed all of his friends. “Why tainting the memory we have with the sight behind this door?”

Kuro stepped forward with a frown on his face. “I don't understand why you are so reluctant, but it would be best if Shouyo has the chance to say goodbye, even if an insignificant tombstone is going to hear it.”

There was a minute-long pause during which Akaashi appeared to be deep in thought. “Then I am going to do it, since you're all insisting on its alleged importance,” he huffed, picking up the hammer.

It was heavier than it looked, but it was probably more the imaginary than the tool itself. He pushed Bokuto aside, staring at the doorknob. He could do this.

“Keiji—” the taller man argued, but the ravenette wouldn't have it.

“No, Kou. You wouldn't be able to do it. You're too soft.”

Keiji had never done this. In all these weeks and months, he had never killed one zombie. Not because he couldn't but because he never had to. He avoided being in close proximty of a zombie. That was about to change, though. Before Kotarou could protest any further, Akaashi pushed the door open. Natsu, was right behind it, was knocked down from the force of the door.

Akaashi barely remembered the minutes when it happened. It went by like a blur. The dark-haired man didn’t hesitate when he swung the hammer at Natsu, hitting the side of her head, knocking her down again when she tried to get up. The handle of the hammer was rough and uneven, and Keiji concentrated on those features as the face of the hammer made impact with the girl’s skull, cracking it open like a watermelon. Akaashi couldn't remember whether it was bloody. He couldn't even remember the noises. His memory was a soup of scattered fragments, creating incomplete sequences of an act of momentary violence. Perhaps not remembering was for the best. Akaashi didn’t know how to feel when he threw the hammer at his friends’ feet without care. As if he had done it multiple times before, his movements showing an unexpected routine that scared him.

“Do whatever. Burry a hole or set up a fire, but do it without me.” Keiji had said when Bokuto tried to talk to him. He needed time to digest what had happened.

Akaashi was sitting outside a few metres away from the lake, ripping out grass while a sea of thoughts infiltrated his conscious mind. His hands, he realised, were shaking, and for some reason, he felt betrayed again. Like everything he said and thought was fundamentally wrong. Did situations such as these bring out a side of him he, himself, wasn’t aware of?

Why was everyone always against him? First, Kotarou got angry at him because Keiji had pointed out that Natsu was showing symptoms, then Kuro got angry because he voiced the unnecessity of a grave. Akaashi didn’t even want to start with the expression on Yaku’s face. They were probably thinking that Akaashi exhibited a calculated coldness that posed a reason of concern, but he wasn’t heartless. Reflecting on his behaviour, the raven-haired man felt a tint of guilt deep beneath his skin. Still, he decided not to go back and join the rest, so he watched the sun descend. At the other side of the lake he could make out the form of Hinata’s dog barking at a tree, but Akaashi didn’t have the energy to care.

Bokuto and Kuro started digging a hole. Both were concentrated on the task until the shorter man spoke up, disrupting the peaceful silence. “Should I talk to Keiji? He seemed so upset.”

Afer a moment of silcence, Kuro answered. “I think Keiji was right.”

The answer confused Bokuto, but Kuro didn’t elaborate. The statement just came like a stone, hitting him out of nowhere. Bokuto stopped mid-motion and cocked his head to the side, eyeing his best friend. Then he put the shovel aside and sighed:

“So, you also think burials are meaningless now?”

“No.” Tetsurou answered. He hopped out of the hole and sat on the edge; his chin propped up on the end of the shovel. “What I meant to say is that Keiji was right about you.”

“What do you mean?”

The confusion on Bo’s face didn’t surprise the ravenette. “You wouldn’t have been able to do it. That’s all.”

“Then again, maybe we really don’t need to burry the dead to mourn them. We do it out of habit. Even though, it’s better to hold on to those habits, right?” Kuro smiled, patting his friend on the shoulder.

“Yeah.” Bokuto nodded, getting out of the hole too. “Do you think that’s deep enough?”

“It’s fine. Let’s see if Yaku is done, and then we should get Shouyo and Izumi.” Kuro motioned to the house with his chin. He was covered in dirt, and a sheen of sweat collected on his forehead, rolling down the side of his face. He walked toward the farmhouse and Bokuto followed him.

Akaashi was about to wake up, being in a trance-like state between half-asleep and half-awake. A hand was nudging his shoulder, and his eyes shot open. He sat upright, the motion so fast it made him dizzy.

“You shouldn’t fall asleep in the open like this.” chastised Bokuto. Akaashi could barely make out his face in the dark, but his hand radiated with warmth. The shorter man hadn’t meant to fall asleep. He normally would never engage in such reckless behaviour.

Akaashi put his arms over his head, one hand pulling at his elbow to stretch the sleepiness away. His bones cracked, and he yawned, “Are you finished?”

“How are you feeling?” The taller male ignored Akaashi’s question, asking one of his own. Bokuto planted a soft kiss on his forehead while treading his fingers through his black, messy locks.

Keiji appreciated the gentleness and exhaled deeply through his mouth. “I am fine,” he answered, but he couldn’t even convince himself. Those past few days, he had been quite frustrated with himself.

The other caught on to his hushed tone and said: “Are you still upset?”

“Do you feel differently about me now?” The question was sudden; out of context, so to speak.

“Huh?” Bokuto frowned, “Differently how?”

“About what I did.” Keiji looked up, scanning the other’s face. “I didn’t even hesitate. Not even once, whereas you always seem to still do that, even if you hadn’t known them.” He was referring to him hitting Natsu with a hammer without as much as batting an eye. Bokuto, on the other hand, still had nightmares about all the things he had had to do.

“You’re still my Keiji. You’re lovely, funny and beautiful. That won’t change. My love for you won’t change.”

Akaashi huffed out a laugh, “You say that now, but—”

“There are no buts. Remember how hard I had to fight to win you over? You didn’t even acknowledge me when we first met. Whenever you saw me, you’d make a face or speed-walk away.” Bokuto pulled a disgruntled face, trying to mimic Akaashi at the time.

“I… I didn’t do that.”

To be honest, Akaashi was embarrassed by the undivided attention, Kotarou had been giving him; embarrassed by all the compliments and the unabashed flirting.

“You did. Do you know how devastated I was every time you shot me down when I asked you out?”

Keiji pursed his lips, turning his head away. “I was still traumatised by the book you threw in my face.” An excuse.

“Unintentionally. It was meant to hit Kuro,” the taller man justified.

Akaashi met the other's eyes. The gold of them glimmered in the light of the full moon that reflected from the lake. “Want me to tell you a secret?” He whispered, coming closer, so that their lips were almost touching.

Bokuto’s gaze was fixated on the cupid’s bow of the ravenette’s lips. “A good or a bad one?”

“You’d already won me over the first time you introduced yourself to me. I just played hard to get,” Keiji muttered, resting his forehead against Kotarou’s.

Bokuto snorted, “Not only hard to get. It was like cracking a coconut with a toothpick.”

Akaashi laughed. He barely did that nowadays, though he had never been the kind of person to openly show emotions. Bokuto then stood up, offering his hand to the smaller man. He took it, letting himself be pulled up with one dynamic pull.

“I figured you'd still want to be present when we burry her, despite what you said.” Kotarou said, leading him to where the rest of the group was standing. They had made a Bon fire to lighten up the area, since the lamps from the house and the headlights of the car weren't enough.

The air was grief stricken, and Keiji couldn't bring himself to look at a sniffling Hinata. They were standing around the hole Kuro and Bokuto had dug into the ground. The earth, the two men lifted from the soil, formed an even pile right next to the grave. There also stood a canister of petrol, so Keiji assumed they decided to burn Natsu’s body.

Kuro cleared his throat, “Does anyone want to say some last words?” His eyes landed on Hinata.

Shouyo took a deep breath to calm himself down and not start sobbing again right away. He thought he had already shed all the tears his body contained, but every time he thought about Natsu, and the undeniable fact that she wasn't going to come back, he cried even harder.

“I-I just…” the ginger moved his eyes upwards. He heard it helped suppress the tears. “I want to say that I love you and that you were the best sister I could have wished for. I want you to come back so bad, and if I could, I’d just trade my life for yours.”

Izumi sobbed while he embraced his friend, and Yaku whipped his now wet cheeks. He hated when people cried. It always brought him to tears too, even if he didn't mean to cry.

“You ready?” Kuro asked, lifting the petrol canister from the ground, opening the cap. Hinata nodded, though he wasn't fully ready to say goodbye just yet.

The tall ravenette poured the strong-smelling liquid on the lifeless body of the girl. Yaku had dressed her up, making it look like she was only sleeping, despite the discolouration of her skin. Her hair was braided with flowers adorning the braid.

Kuro then opened the matchbox and lightened a match, throwin it into the grave. The fire immediately ignited, burning, flickering and cracking.

Akaashi was hypnotised by the colours of the flames. He could feel the warmth on his skin, and his eyes followed the embers, trying to count them. An impossible task. It was like trying to count the stars in the sky.

They stayed around the grave until the fire subsided and left was nothing but the carbonised remains of a young girl that vanished to exist without really getting the chance to live. Bokuto and Kuro closed the hole after letting Hinata and Izumi put the first pile on the place of interment. When they were done, they went inside, dragging their feet over the ground. Nobody spoke word, but there weren't any words to say right now. Silence was the only proper responds to express the grief.

  
*********

“I can’t run no more,” Toru wheezed while Hajime dragged him down the street into a narrow alleyway. His lungs were burning, and he coughed violently. It made him sick. The pain in his knee was getting worse, and it fellt like it was about to jump out of the socket or just fall off at this point. The adrenaline did nothing to dull the excruciating throb.

“Just a little longer.” Iwaizumi felt the strain too, the toll, the unintended exercise, and the limited amount of sleep, took on his body. Tobio, who weighed about 15 kg at best, got heavy. He mostly carried hin on one arm, and it felt like he was carrying trice his weight. He also had to drag Toru around because otherwise, the brunette would just stop running. It slowed them down.

The former soldier could still hear the zombies behind them, sense their presence drawing in on them. The town had several narrow alleys, which he took, and he turned into another one when he saw another group of the Undead blocking their escape route. These things were everywhere, despite the town's small population.

“Ah, shit,” Iwaizumi cursed when he realised that he ran into a dead end. “We need to use the fire exit stairs.” He pointed at the stair case attached to the brick walls of the building.

“The what?” Toru could barely walk. His body was hunched over, and his knees were wobbly.

The steel ladder was almost 3 metres from the ground, he noticed. He helped Tobio on to the steel platform of the fire escape. It wasn't easy because Tobio was small, but at least he knew how to climb. Then Iwaizumi pulled up Oikawa, who had fallen to the ground.

“I’ll give you a leg-up,” the black-haired man intertwined his fingers. “Get going!” It was an urgent matter. Toru had to get his shit together right now.

“Uff.” Oikawa had trouble stepping on the other man’s hands, but he managed to grab the ladder, pulling himself onto the platform where Tobio sat waiting.

All this happened within less than two minutes, and the zombies had already sniffed them out, now sprinting toward Iwaizumi. He jumped up and got a hold on the metal. Pulling himself up; a task that he’d usually do with ease. However, without the additional support of his feet while he was in a state of pure exhaustion, this ease task was turned out to be a tough one.

“Hajime!” The brunette shrieked, grabbing him to help him up. A zombie held on to his shoe, trying to pull the man down. The Undead got excited by the prospect of food and growled loudly; teeth grinding togehter while intending to bite him.

“Pull the ladder up!” Iwaizumi kicked the zombie, and Toru tried to process the order. He didn’t know what to do, and Tobio-chan started crying. It was like he was watching a movie. He was a mere spectator, unable to move, think or respond. Is this what powerlessness felt like?

The ravenette looked down on the increasing sea of zombies beneath him as he held on to the ladder step. His hands were sweaty, and he was sure he would lose his grip if this went on any longer. I tried to weasel his foot out of the monster’s iron grasp, but every time he escaped, another one got hold of him. This differed from the things he had seen during the operations in areas of conflict. It was on a whole other level. He had always been on high alert during these operations; he barely slept, his senses sharpened from the potential danger that lurked around every corner. For the first time in a while, he experienced the kind of fear he had when he got that scar. The fear of dying and leaving behind the people he had sworn to protect.

The shrieking sound of a car alarm saved his life, though. It distracted the zombies for a split second, a second he use to his advantage.

“I am sorry!” Oikawa had tears in his eyes, and his lip was quivering. Tobio was also still sobbing, and the brunette was too upset to calm the child down. It was the first time he saw the boy act like the child he was.

“It’s alright.” Iwaizumi hugged them, tightening his arms around them. He didn’t blame Toru. Sometimes, people just freeze, especially when they are in a bad shape, both mentally and physically. “We’ll walk up to the roof to get an idea of where we are and rest up.” Oikawa nodded his head and took a sniffling Tobio by the hand.

Several minutes later, Hanamaki still couldn’t believe it. Matsun just left them there, risking his life, and he didn’t even know how he was doing. He looked around the garden area of the mansion. The place was huge. There was a pool with deflated inflatable toys that floated on the surface. The garden furniture was scattered around, and there were several pools of dried blood on the front of the porch and on the wall, but other than that, the place seemed safe.

“I have to go after him,” Hanamaki said, peeking out of the locked gate.

“It’s too dangerous!”

Tadashi was frightened, but Maki had to go. He had to find Matsun. He would never be able to forgive himself if something happened to his most favourite friend.

“He is hurt and can barely walk straight,” the strawberry-blonde man argued. He was upset. He was angry at Matsun for leaving him. The anger intensified by every minute of uncertainty. The worry overshadowed his sense of reason. Matsun's recklessness pissed him off.

“We don’t have weapons. I can’t fight. You can’t fight—”

“I can fight just fine when I need to.” It was a lie. Time had proved that he couldn’t, but his emotions were overwhelming him. “I am sorry.”

“It’s fine,” the freckled boy smiled.

Hanamaki surveyed the surroundings outside the gate, spotting only a handful of stray zombies. “We should get going. Can you walk?” It was a legitimate question to which he needed an honest answer. If Tadashi needed more time to rest, then he should say so. It could become troublesome if he was still too tired in case to run again. One moment, the area could be calm and peaceful, and the next, it could become deadly.

Tadashi sat on the ground; his head rested on his wrist. “I am fine to go.” He stood up, and Maki gave him a scrutinising look.

“If you need more time, then we can—”

“No, I am all good.”

“Okay.”

Hanamaki shoved the picnic table that had fallen off the porch in front of the gate to make it easier to climb over the gate. The streets were quiet, so he swung himself over, landing on the pavement. He motioned for Yamaguchi to do the same, not taking his eyes off the streets and the surrounding area.

“Ah!” Tadashi fell on his ass and Maki helped him up.

“Matsun ran this way.” He pointed at the direction he assumed the raven-haired man took, but he wasn’t that sure. He crossed the street and walked down the pavement like the poster citizen he was.

Yamaguchi hurried after him, walking by his side. He had trouble keeping up with the pace. “I still think we should go to the agreed emergency meeting spot,” the teen voiced out his concern, “Matsukawa said to meet him there.” Maki stopped dead in his tracks.

“I know what he said, but he talks a lot of bullshit.”

“Still…”

The strawberry-blonde male didn’t want to hear it. He wanted to search for Matsun. He hated being separated from him. They had never been separated. They were together all the time. Issei’s presence was a constant. Not having him there felt unnatural.

“Look, I can’t—”

“Shit.” Tadashi pointed a shaky hand at something behind Takahiro. The older man frowned, confused by the teenager’s sudden use of a curse word and the way his eyes widened to the size of tennis balls.

“What?” Takahiro turned around to see what Tadashi was pointing at. His eyes widened, “That’s our cue to get fucking out of here.” He shoved the brunette forward, and now he regretted not listening. To him the zombies only appeared to be getting faster every time they ran into one or two or a bunch of them. They were also persistent in their pursuit and hard to get rid of.

Maki held on to his bag while running. He didn’t want to lose his items. He still had to take photos with Matsun. “Change of plans.”

Right now, he had to hope for the best and trust Issei to get out safely. Tadashi seemed to understand. They ran into the first open house they saw, barricading the door with the shoe shelf, so the zombies could't get in.

Maki opened the first door and immediately shut it again. “Not good,” he said, realising that today was his least favourite day. Tadashi was about to lose conciousness from the panic, so Hanamaki decided that it was best not to tell him that there were several zombies behind that door. He motioned for the teenager to follow him into the bathroom where they could lock the door and think of a way to get out of this mess.

Sometimes, Matsun did things he didn't really think through completely. He tried to ignore the headache that started impairing his vision, and the muscles in his legs were about to give in from the exhaustion, but the adrenaline kept him upright and running. Issei didn't dare look behind him for two reasons: First, he didn't want to know how close the zombies were, but given that he could practically hear their growls and moans right next to his ear meant that they were quite close. Second, he had once heard that turning around while running slowed you down and would mostly be his imminent doom.

Matsun saw his chance to shake the zombies off, but if he failed, he would surely become the zombies’ next meal; something he wanted to avoid at all costs. He made a sharp turn, and a few zombies tumbled over their feet, not expecting their prey to change direction.

‘So, the zigzag-technique does seem to work, huh,’ Matsukawa thought as he headed towards the high fence. The ravenette mentally crossed his fingers, trying not to overthink things. With the speed he had, Matsukawa managed to jump over the fence, falling onto the grass with a dull thud.

“Ah, shit,” he groaned, rolling on his back. A sharp pain shot through his arm, but he had to ignore the throbbing pain, since it would only be a matter of time before the zombies tore down the wooden fence. Life could really be a drag sometimes.

He picked himself off the ground with some effort and studied his surroundings. Matsun had landed in the yard of a nice-looking single-family home. The fences were high and showed no damage, and Matsukawa wondered how he even managed to conquer the sheer height of that wall.

The growth in the garden was massive. It looked like a miniature forest with various plants growing, some even over the fence or climbing the facade of the house. If the zombies weren’t so loud, then he would probably be able to hear the hidden life that was flourishing in this mini habitat.

Matsun entered the house through the open slide door and inspected the well-kept living room. The dust that covered the shelves, the floor, the glass table in front of the TV and the sofa was the only sign that showed that the residents hadn’t been here for a while. It was weird that the place was kept in order and didn’t give the impression that something happened.

The pillows were neatly placed on the sofa, the glass cabinet that showcased a bunch of odd-looking clay statues, had no scratches, and the glass wasn’t broken either. There was an expensive tea set on the dinner table, and the shelves held a vast collection of books. Matsun scanned the titles and realised that most of these books were about gardening or the flora and fauna in certain areas of Japan. Matsun assumed that this house either belonged to a botanist, a bored pensioner, or a weirdo with a hunch for plants. He was tending to the latter, considering the clay figures, some of which were in a very compromising position. Matsun didn’t intend to stay here longer than necessary because the place freaked him out.

Issei sneak-peaked out the glass door into the garden. There was no zombie, so he guessed the zombies had either given up or found another prey.

The black-haired male huffed out a long sigh and let his body fall onto the sofa. He sneezed from the dust that creeped up his nostrils and sat up again, rubbing his face. He had known he was tired, but sitting down after such a marathon of running for his life made the exhaustion more prominent. Matsun definitely needed a break. His eyes wandered to the surprisingly still ticking clock above the kitchen entry. It read half-past two. Matsukawa’s mind drifted off to Maki. He hoped Takahiro was okay. It had been a tough decision to leave him alone, and he hated not knowing where the other was or what he was doing. The constant uncertainty was making him anxious. What if he did the wrong thing? What if Maki didn’t make it? He shouldn’t have left him. The rumbling of his stomach interrupted his tirade of negative thoughts, and Matsun sighed again, bending his head backwards, only to feel a cold object touch his head and a figure looming over him. Issei stared at the rifle; eyes moving to the person holding it.

“Who are you? Are you one of them?” A raven-haired boy, who couldn’t be older than Freckles, asked in a steady tone. His face showed no sign of distress. His eyes suggested a level of calculation, but his expression was mostly blank.

“I don’t take kindly to people pointing a gun at me.” Matsun deadpanned.

The boy pressed the rifle harder against the side of Issei’s head, narrowing his eyes. “Answer my question. Are you one of them?”

“One of whom? Look kid, I don’t know what you’re talking about, and for the record, I accidentally stumbled in here.” Why were people always pointing guns at him? Why did so many people have guns in their homes in the first place? Why was it always him that ran into those kinds of trigger-happy individuals? Matsun was sure by now that he was cursed.

The boy took the rifle down, “It’s just an alarm gun,” he explained as he dropped it on the floor. “I thought you were one of them, but now that I look at you...” The teenager cast his eyes away.

“One of whom?” Matsukawa was confused.

His movements were hesitant, but the black-haired boy answered, anyway. “A while ago, a small group of people came here — maybe nine or teen in total — that raided some of the houses. They killed those who crossed path with them, but they didn’t ‘kill kill’ them. They just made them turn. I think they did that out of fun.”

Issei blinked. “I can assure you that I am not one of those sickos.”

“Yeah. You’re kinda too old.”

“Wow, how rude. I am not that old, you know.” Did he look old? But to youngster everyone looked old. Although, the fact that a bunch of teenagers did this made it even scarier. “Are you on your own? What’s your name?”

“I am with my friend. I told him to hide upstairs and wait for me,” the boy said; his tone even. “My name’s Akira Kunimi.”

“I’m Issei Matsukawa. Call me Matsun.” Issei introduced himself. He took in the teen's appearance. He was rather skinny but tall, and his hair was parted in the middle. It was a weird hairstyle. “I am about to meet up with my friends,” Matsun paused, waiting for a reaction that didn’t come. “Wanna join?”

Kunimi didn’t answer right away. He was probably contemplating the offer, wondering if Matsukawa could be trusted. Then he nodded his head. It was a curt nod, and he didn’t say more.

“Cool.” Matsun stood up from the couch. His muscles were still aching, but the sooner they met with the rest of his group the better. Besides, he needed to know if Maki was unharmed. “Now we just have to find a big-ass oak tree with a fucked-up-looking wooden bench underneath.” Issei had no clue where that tree was. His mind was occupied when Iwaizumi determined their emergency meet-up point. He hadn’t expected to split with Maki.

“I know where this is.” Akira stated, and Matsukawa felt relieved. “I’ll get my friend. His name’s Yuutarou Kindaichi. He’s a cautious guy, so he might be suspicious of you.”

When Kunimi notified his friend that it was safe to leave the room, Matsun had to suppress the laughter that bubbled in his chest. The boy was taller than him, and his hair looked like a turnip. It looked utterly ridiculous. Who on earth would style their hair to look like a vegetable?

Oikawa was nervously walking up and down while the rest were resting on the bench beneath the tree. The brunette was worried. Maki and Matsun had still to arrive, and Freckles was missing too. What if they didn’t make it?

“Can you stop pacing around? They probably just got lost. Maki has a terrible sense of direction. He’d even manage to get lost on his way home.” Iwaizumi said. Now that he mentioned that, he was worried too. There was no way Maki would find their meeting spot, and he was sure Matsun didn’t listen to him.

“Let’s just wait a little longer. They will come for sure.” Kiyoko smiled.

Toru sighed and plopped himself beside Iwaizumi. His eyes fell on the sleeping form of Tobio, who was snoring and clinging onto the black-haired man. Toru scanned the tree’s, looking for any sign for his friends. However, all he could hear was the rustling of the wind and the chirping of birds and insects. His knee was hurting, and he didn’t realise how bad it was until he sat down. Running with a cartilage damage was the worst. It felt like his knee was about to pop out of its place.

“Ah, fuck!”

The four of them shot up from the bench, heads turned into the direction of the sound. The bushes rustled and branches cracked until three people, two of whom they didn’t know, stumbled into the clearing.

“Matsun!” Oikawa called out, and then he cocked his head to the side, “New accessory? Where are Ta-chan and Freckles?”

“I found them on the way. Thought, I’d just adopt them.” Matsukawa then briefly introduced the two teenagers . He frowned when he counted the members of his group that gathered beneath the oak tree.

“Whatever, where’s Maki and Tadashi? I thought they were with you?” Iwaizumi asked.

Dread ran down Matsun’s skin like the sweat sticking to his body. “We got separated. He’s with Freckles. I thought they’d already be here.” He had to force himself not to think the worst.

“It’s still bright outside, so let’s just wait.” Iwaizumi sighed. The fatigue was gripping at his body, and he wasn’t sure how long he’d be able to stay awake.

“I hope they’re fine.” Hitoka muttered. There was a nervous gloom on her face. It was apparent she was worried.

While the rest introduced themselves to the two new members, Oikawa and Matsun were both pacing around. Their anxiety level increased with every hour, and at some point, they sat on the ground, staring holes into the deep thicket.

The sun was about to set when they heard the noise of the walkie talkie and two familiar voices. Then the two missing people appeared from the opposite side.

“Oi!! Issei!” Matsun heard Hanamaki’s clear and joyful voice call his name, and his heart leapt at the sound. He turned around and saw the strawberry-blonde man waving at him; the motions of his arms frantic and the walkie talkie still in his hand.

“There you are!” Issei called back, running towards the other male despite the growing exhaustion.

“They even more dramatic as you are, Toru.” Iwaizumi commented, pointed at the two men that were running toward each other in slow motion.

“God, I am so mad at you.” Maki whispered while clinging on to the taller man. He wanted to look for Matsun, but Tadashi convinced him that it would be best to go to their meeting spot. It took them some time to find it, and they got lost several times, but in the end they made.

“I was so scared, but I am glad now that you’re here.” Matsukawa squeezed Maki tightly, burying his face into his neck. He could hear him sniffle in his chest, and it filled him with warmth.

“How come you were scared?” Hanamaki looked up, confused. His eyes were puffy and slightly red. Matsun laughed, swaying the other around while hugging him tighter.

“Because I am always scared when I don’t know your whereabouts.”

Maki huffed, glowering at his friend. “Don’t pull shit like this again.”

“Hey, you two!” Toru called out, “I feel neglected.” There was a pout on his face, and he was opening his arms, expecting a hug.

“Awww,” Maki clenched at his heart.

“Come here.” Issei said, inviting him into the hug. “Let’s do a group hug,” he announced, “You too, Iwa. Don’t think I didn’t see you rolling your eyes.”

“There are two faces I don’t know.” Hanamaki suddenly spoke up, pointing at the newcomers.

“I am Akira.” The boy with the parted hair said, bowing his head.

“Yuutarou,” the tall teen next to him mumbled. He seemed a bit shy.

“I thought we should adopt them.” Matsun pointed out, putting his arms around the teens’ shoulders.

Hanamaki laughed, “that sounds like something you’d do.”

“By the way, who have you been talking to?” Iwaizumi asked, and the strawberry-blonde blinked.

Then he remembered the walkie talkie. “I had the walkie talkie in my bag, and people from the station contacted us.”

“And?”

“I told them where to find us,” Maki answered casually.

Iwaizumi closed his eyes and took deep inhales and exhales. “Either you are an idiot or you don’t have any sense of danger.”

Matsun pulled on Maki’s cheek, “You can’t just give away our location.”

“Ouch—”

“I told you.” Tadashi whispered as he anxiously turned his head around into every direction.

The grass rustled again, indicating that something, or someone, was coming their way. “I guess it’s my fault if we die.”

Maki felt guilty. The possibility of the people on the other end of the handheld radio-transceiver having ill intentions didn’t cross his mind. They had just escaped the zombie hoard that chased them into the house when he noticed the sound that was coming from his bag. Naturally, he would answer the 'call'. Out of courtesy of course.

He held his breath and clasped on to Matsukawa when two people stepped out of the thicket. One had a walkie-talkie in his hand, holding it up. He was short, but still muscular, had black hair that was styled upward with some hair of his blonde-bleached fringe falling into his face. His clothes were simple, consisting of a dirty black leather jacket, black pants that were ripped on the knees, and military boots. He had a leather holster tied around his waist, but it didn’t hold any weapons. The other man was slacking behind the smaller one. His brown hair was long and tied up in a bun, and he had slight stubbles on his chin. He wore similar clothes, though his knees, elbows and chest seemed to be padded. Despite his rough appearance, his behaviour was surprisingly meek, almost anxious as he hid behind his shorter companion.

“Hey, there. Thanks for helping us out.” The boisterous voice of the smaller man chuckled.

“We didn’t mean to startle you.” The taller apologised, raising his hands up.

“You’re welcome?” Toru spoke up, since no one of his group made a sound.

The shorter male waved his arms around, talking non-stop, “Man, you really saved our asses there. Oh, I haven introduced myself yet. I am Yuu Nishinoya. Nice to meet you.”

“I am Asahi,” the brunette introduced himself with a shy smile.

“I am Maki.” Takahiro said, stepping forward. “We talked over the walkie talkie.”

Nishinoya smiled. His friendly and open demeanour eased the tension of the group. Maki was glad that he didn't do something that got them killed. Trusting people wasn't always dangerous. He couldn't be suspicious of people by default just because they had run into quite a lot of assholes, some of which had been sociopaths.

“Look, they have a hottie in their group.” Nishinoya nudged Asahi. The man looked apologetic while his friend's eyes lightened up.

Oikawa frowned and sighed, “Sorry. You're not my type.” The brunette waved him off, and Iwaizumi face-palmed himself, dragging his hand down his face slowly to highlight the dramatic effect.

“I don't think he is talking about you.” Toru looked scandalised at the statement, almost offended.

“…” The brunette stared at Hajime, “he can't be talking about Matsun. I mean sure, he’s a good-looking guy, but the first thing you notice is his eyebrow,” he turned to Matsukawa, “no offence.”

“Ouch!” Issei commented, “Offence taken.”

Maki patted his shoulder, “Don’t listen to Toru’s narcissism,” he shot Oikawa a glare “You're lovely personality draws the attention away from the bushy clouds over your eyes.”

“You mean that?” Matsun fake-sniffled, resting his head on Maki’s shoulder.

The smaller man nodded, patting the raven’s head. “To-chan’s exterior might be pretty, but he has a rotten core. He’s actually quite ugly once you get to know him.”

“Hey!” Toru protested.

“He’s got a point.” Iwaizumi shrugged, nodding in agreement.

Oikawa turned away, squeezing a still tired-looking Tobio into a tight hug. “Tobio-chan’s the only pleasant person here. You all suck.”

"Look who's talking," Matsun yawned.

“He was clearly talking about Ms Kiyoko,” stated Kunimi bluntly. He already regretted joining a gang of clowns.

“Now that makes more sense,” Hanamaki nodded, thinking about it.

“Why does Hajime always look like he’s suffering?” Issei wondered out loud while rubbing his chin.

“Because I am suffering. Your stupidity is a pain.” The former soldier pointed at Matsun, Oikawa and Maki.

Matsukawa sighed, “Your words contradict your actions, wait?” A pause.

“You mean, his actions contradict his words?” Oikawa offered.

“Wouldn’t both be correct?” Matsun cocked his head to the left, thinking it through. How confusing.

“Hmm…” Toru hummed.

“Iwaizumi is such a tsundere,” Maki snickered, hiding his mouth behind his hand, giggling like a school-girl. Iwaizumi’s reactions were always entertaining.

Asahi and Nishinoya tilted their head’s, watching the group bicker among themselves. They were an odd bunch, but they seemed interesting and easy-going.

Noya broke out into a hearty laughter, interrupting the friendly banter.

“You guys are funny. Are you interested in becoming part of our group? We always look for new people to join. We’re well-organised, there's food, and it's safe,” Noya explained. He was met with silence, and Iwaizumi motioned his friends to gather in a circle. “What do you guys think?”

Oikawa peeked his head out to see what the two strangers were doing. They were standing at the exact stop they had been standing all along, meaning they hadn't moved. The short guy was rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet. A sign of impatience. The old one had a frightened expression on his face, but Toru guessed he was a wimp. He looked scary from the outside, but it was more appearance than reality. The bearded man was more of a tabby cat than a lion.

Toru ducked down again, his lips drawing out a long ‘hmmmm’

“They seem nice,” Maki pointed out.

“They can't be more annoying than you guys,” Kunimi commented, and Oikawa waved him off: “Sometimes, you can’t choose your adoptive family, Sleepy-chan.”

“I have nothing against it,” Kiyoko said in a gentle voice.

Hitoka nodded and added: “They have food.”

“That’s a valid argument, Shorty.” Matsun agreed. Yachi frowned at the nickname.

“What do you think, Iwa?” Maki asked.

“You decide.” Said Oikawa.

“Why me?”

“You’re the most reliable.” Kiyoko answered, and Hitoka and Tadashi nodded curtly.

“I’d say it’s the air of authority around you. That or the biceps. What’s the medical term, Maki?” Matsun turned his head to Maki.

“Musculus biceps brachii.”

Several pairs of eyes stared at Hajime with expectation reflecting in their orbs. It made him uncomfortable. “Do you guys want to?” He was met with hesitation and shrugs that said, ‘I don't really care. You decide.’

“Let's have Tobio-chan decide if Iwa-chan can't.” Oikawa suggested. The boy was standing in front of him, almost in the middle of the circle. “You wanna go?”

The child was confused, intimidated by everyone staring at him. “Just nod, Tobio-chan,” Oikawa encouraged. He mussed the boy's hair, smiling down at him. Tobio stared at the brunette for a moment, and then his eyes fell on Iwaizumi, giving him a slight nod before he turned around to hug Toru.

“I will take that as a yes,” the black-haired man said, “Any objections.” Silence.

The group parted, and Iwaizumi stepped forward. He turned around briefly, then he spoke up: “We’ll come with you, but we can't promise we’d stay.”

“That's not a problem.” Asahi smiled, waving his arms around, and Noya gave them a thumps- up.

“We should introduce ourselves, I guess—”

Oikawa suddenly flagged his arms around as if he wanted to be called by the teacher to answer the question. “I’ll do it. I’ll do it.”

“No. Absolutely not.”

“I am Toru Oikawa,” he started before speed-introducing everyone. “The grumpy one is Iwa-chan, the one with the bushy eyebrows is Matsun. Blondie. Freckles. Sleepy-face. Maki. Not important. Tobio-chan, and lastly the vegetable.” Oikawa pointed at Iwaizumi, Matsukawa, Hitoka, Tadashi and then at Kunimi, Hanamaki, Kiyoko, Tobio and Kindaichi.

“What?” Asahi and Noya were confused.

“That's why you should not be allowed to introduce us, Trashykawa.” Iwaizumi argued, but Oikawa just shrugged.

“Stop targeting my eyebrows.”

“Stop harassing Issei’s eyebrows.” Maki covered the taller man’s eye.

“Vegetable?” Kindaichi turned towards Kunimi, but the teen just rolled his eyes.

“I am already used to being called Freckles.” Whined Yamaguchi.

“It's better than my nickname.” Yachi sighed, but she didn't really mind. She figured that is might be some term of endearment. Kiyoko also didn't seem to be bothered by the brunette's rudeness toward her.

When Iwaizumi was done correcting Oikawa’s way of introducing everyone, they made their way to the pickup van Asahi and Nishinoya came with.

It was pitch-black, but the sky was covered in a beautiful mosaic of stars. The colours were mesmerising, and the lack of light highlighted the purity of the night sky. Matsun wobbled, and Maki caught him, almost falling over himself.

“Are you okay?” His voice was full of concern.

“I am fine. Just tired.” Maki didn't believe him. It was obvious Matsun wasn't fine.

“Just put your arm over me.”

Matsun swung his arm around Hanamaki’s shoulder, leaning on to him for support. The shorter man groaned, “You're heavier than I thought.”

“Did you just call me fat?”

“Yes.”

“Thought so.”

“Hey, Iwa!” Maki called out rather loudly.

“Not so loud, dumbass.” The former soldier barked, his voice equally loud.

“Leant us the strength of these sinful mountains of pure muscle that is your biceps.”

“Are you asking me to punch you two? If not, the answer is no.”

“How cruel.” Issei whined.

“I am serious.”

“You being serious doesn't occur together in a sentence, unless it’s a negation.”

Maki blinked. Since when was Iwaizumi such a sassy asshole? He was impressed.

“No, really—” That’s when Maki couldn't support the Issei’s weight anymore. He was exhausted too, and Matsun had leant his entire weight on him, which caused his knees to buckle. The result: he fell like a freshly chopped down tree.

The group stopped in their tracks, and Iwaizumi helped Matsun to his feet. “You're really exhausted, huh.”

“Thanks, man.”

“It's alright.”

The night was peaceful, and no zombie was in sight. They had taken a detour, in order to avoid the hoard of zombies they encountered in town. When they finally reached the pickup truck, Matsun slummed into the backseat. He was so beat, he could just fall asleep on the spot. The vehicle was messy, with only one side being kept in order. Issei could already take a good guess whom of the two was the messy one. It was most likely the guy who lacked a noticeable amount of height. Matsun closed his eyes, leaning his head on Maki’s shoulder, listening to the other's leisure conversations.

"How'd you end up in the station, anyway?" Iwaizumi asked Asahi.

"We sought shelter in there because a zombie hoard was chasing us. We thought we'd find some weapons in the station, but there weren't any. We'd been stuck there for two days. These things just wouldn't leave."

Noya then answered the question that burned on the raven-haired man's tongue. "We were on a one week trip in order to survey the area, so our friends wouldn't know. It's going to be a two and half day trip back to our camp, by the way."

Iwaizumi nodded and got on the loading area of the pick-up truck. They were pinched together with three people in the front, and five in the back. The rest were in the loading area.

Maki watched the expression of Matsun’s sleeping face. He’d seen it so often, but today it didn't look as peaceful as it normally did. Hanamaki touched the philtrum above the ravenette’s mouth. Matsun was a handsome man, and his eyebrows matched his natural charms. His heart swelled in his chest, and he smiled, drawing his hand away when he realised what he was doing. He’d been experiencing the fluttering feeling in his stomach, like butterflies, light and warm and irritating at the same time. For the rest of the bumpy ride, his eyes were fixated on the poorly lit road. He couldn't be, could? They were friends. Friends cared, worried for and loved each other. It didn't have to be something as inconvenient as love.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think the chapter came out well. Feel free to tell me what you think, though I hope you like it. I always appreciate the response, so leave comments and kudos. 😉🤗
> 
> I always try to post more frequently and set a scedule, but I kinda always fail to meet my own deadline. 😅


	13. New Environment, New Friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's a late chapter 13. Enjoy!

It took them almost two weeks until they reached the camp Noya and Asahi had been talking about. The trip had taken longer than expected because they had to avoid main roads, since the ‘traffic’ was stuck with zombies crowding the blocked roads. The side roads had also lacked in maintenance, making manoeuvring through the overgrowth even harder, and they had run out of fuel several times.

The area wasn’t as isolated as Maki thought it would be, only a few kilometres from the main city. He didn’t know whether he should consider this to be a good or bad thing. It might have its perks, but it could also be disadvantageous.

“We’re there,” announced Noya through the walkie-talkie, his voice booming through the speaker of the device.

The first thing Hanamaki noticed was the high gate when they drove into the driveway of what appeared to be the campus of a former boarding school, though he couldn’t really tell, since he wasn’t able to see past the gate or the surrounding stone fence.

Parts of the residence were surrounded by a barbwire and a self-crafted fence that enhanced the height of the pre-existing stone wall. The people living there were probably right in the process of making the place safer.

Very close to the main entrance stood a tree with a tree house, serving as a look-out point. A person cladded in a black cloak; face covered by a hood, looked out of the window of the tree house, and they were obviously armed. Upon seeing Nishinoya and Asahi, however, they greeted them cheerfully, calling for someone to let them in. By the deep tone of the person’s voice, Maki assumed them to be a guy.

“Fucking finally,” the man yelled, “we thought you two might not have made it.” He lifted his hood, revealing a shaved head and grey eyes with a bluish tint.

Nishinoya laughed, his voice light and boisterous while Asahi looked frightened by the mention of an early death by the jaws of zombies.

Maki followed the others when they stepped out of the cars, walking close behind Matsun when they entered the camp, watching the gate close behind them.

The man who opened it had his eyes fixed on the unfamiliar faces. He was an average- somewhat innocent-looking guy with dark hair, and a droopy look on his face. He was about to ask a question when the man that previously occupied the tree house stepped in front of him, blocking the brunettes’s view to greet Noya and Asahi with a hug. He then eyed the newcomers, cocking his head to the side.

“Who are they?” His expression was one of interest, but the underlining caution was hard to miss.

“These guys, Ryuo, are our new friends. They saved our asses, otherwise we might have really not made it back,” Nishinoya explained, going further into detail later on.

However, the Ryuo guy lost interest in his friend’s story when his eyes fell on Kiyoko, who then immediately had his undivided attention.

“You are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen,” he started, falling down on his knees. “Will you, maybe, consider marrying—” the man was cut short by the girls’s dry answer. Matsun chocked on his spit, hiding his face in Maki’s shoulder to suppress his laughter.

“No.” She pulled her hand away, and even though her face did not give her away, she seemed annoyed.

Hanamaki felt sorry for Kiyoko. First, she had to endure Nishinoya’s mediocre pickup lines and now this. He tried not to laugh at her misery, but it was hard, considering that Matsun wasn’t hiding his amusement. He never did, which was what he liked about the other man.

“So cold,” the bald man whined. Noya patted his back to cheer his friend up again, telling him that she was already married to the muscular guy standing next to her.

Ryuo gasped, “Of course, someone as beautiful as her would already be taken. They even have a child.” He pointed at the small raven-haired boy clutching on to Iwaizumi’s pants.

“Excuse you, I am Tobio-chan’s guardian.” Oikawa looked offended, and the scowl on his face remained, despite the man’s profound apology.

Before things escalated, the dark-haired man who had opened the gate, shook his head and sighed heavily. “I apologise for Tanaka. He’s kind of extra, so just ignore him. I am Ennoshita Chikara.” Ennoshita extended his hand and Iwaizumi took it.

“Iwaizumi Hajime,” the other nodded, introducing his friends. He ignored Oikawa’s sulking.

“I’ll introduce you to the head chief.” Chikara motioned for the group to follow him, and so they did. It gave them a chance to look around the place.

While Ennoshita was leading them to the ‘head chief’, he told them a few things about the camp. Maki was stunned by how big it was from the inside, with the huge building in the centre of the camp being the main attraction.

From what Maki could see, there was a small greenhouse for gardening close to the stone wall where simple off-grid wooden cabins had been built. Some only had the frame of the cabin done, but it was obvious what the result was supposed to look like.

They entered the building, which Ennoshita called the ‘Raven’s nest’. It was a weird name, but Hanamaki wasn’t going to question someone’s name choice.

The hallway was long, and the floor was carpeted. The walls were plastered with pictures, and some of these pictures were brilliant, but others looked like a 2-year-old had drawn them. Maki wasn’t an art’s expert, though, and the paintings might be worth millions. They probably weren’t no more.

“What do you think so far?” Matsun’s voice was low, only for Hanamaki to hear.

“It looks nice,” the strawberry-blonde man whispered back, taking in his surroundings. Ennoshita seemed nice too. He was soft-spoken, his smile warm and welcoming as he tried to make simple small-talk.

After what felt like hours of walking through an endless hallway and climbing several stairs, Ennoshita stopped in front of a door and announced: “We are here. Please, answer every question he asked truthfully.” He knocked at the door; his knuckles slightly touching the surface, the action almost hesitant. Maki didn’t know how to interpret it.

A deep voice responded to the knock and allowed the person outside the door to enter. It was a male voice, and it sounded like it belonged to someone older.

“Chief Ukai?”

The man, known as the Chief, looked out of the window without looking at who might have entered; arms behind his back. He was old; a man in his 60s or early 70s. He had short grey hair and a beard, though he appeared to have a fit physique. He wore a black uniform, similar to a military uniform, just without the badges. Just plain black clothes suited for combat. Maki had noticed that most people in the village wore such clothes. It could be a way to distinguish them from outsiders.

“We have newcomers, I assume.” Ukai said, still not turning around.

“Yes, sir. They’ve helped Noya and Asahi—”

“So, the two offered them a place to stay.” Chief Ukai cut the boy off and finished his sentence. The man was hard to read, and you couldn’t tell whether he was pleased or not.

“Eh, yes.” Chikara said, but despite the rude interruption, there was no fear or visible discomfort, neither in his posture nor in his tone.

“Great,” the old man turned around and smiled. “I am Ikkei Ukai. I manage this place. I am pleased to meet you.”

Iwaizumi noticed how everyone of his group was standing behind him, and he rolled his eyes at their stupid behaviour. “Iwaizumi Hajime,” he introduced himself for the second time this day. All these introductions were getting on his nerves.

“So, you’re the leader of your group, I guess.” It sounded like a question, but the sentence construction indicated a statement.

“Ah, no. We go with majority vote,” the raven-haired man answered, scratching the back of his neck.

“I see. What about the rest? I hope I didn’t scare you?” Ukai chuckled.

“As if.” Oikawa grunted, and Iwaizumi hit him over the head, “Ouch!”

Hajime glared at the other, “For once, Shittykawa, try not to be so rude.”

Ukai didn’t look bothered, though, more so, he seemed amused. “Ah, youngsters these days. Some things don’t change. Tell me a bit about yourselves.”

“Well—”

Two other people suddenly entered the room. One had dark hair and wore glasses. He was smaller than the man next to him, probably the same age. The other one had dyed blonde hair held behind with a headband. His face had similarities to the Chief’s.

“Oh! Newcomers.” He stated, introducing himself as Keishin Ukai. He looked sleepy.

“So, you finally got here. Took you long enough.”

“Be grateful I came at all, shitty old man,” the younger man retorted.

The old man grumbled, swatting the other over the head, “Fucking brat.”

“Don’t mind them. I am Ittetsu Takeda. Nice to meet you all.” Takeda gave them a polite smile. He gave off the teacher vibe.

“Anyway, since my useless son and Takeda are here, we want to ask each of you a few things.” Chief Ukai said, and Iwaizumi nodded, “Sure.”

Matsun gave the raven-haired man a weird look. But there wasn’t much they could do, since for now. They were guests, after all.

Hanamaki found himself sitting in a comfortable chair in front of a monstrous desk. Now that he had time, the room’s decor was old-fashioned. Vintage. The desk was hand-crafted and made of solid wood. There were all kinds of things on the table. Papers neatly stacked on the side, a black folder, a few pens and an ink glass with a feather in it. There were also a lot of books; the shelves stuck full with a variety of different genres, like a mini-library.

Right next to the large window was a leather couch, where the younger Ukai was lazing in.

The curtains were drawn open, letting the light fall in and flood the room. Takeda was sitting in a chair close to the desk while Chief Ukai sat right in front of Maki, observing him with sharp eyes.

“What’s your name, age, and former occupation?” The man suddenly asked; chin resting in his palm.

“Takahiro Hanamaki. 22. I worked in a hospital as a nurse,” he answered in a loud voice.

“Great, medical personnel.” The blonde yawned, stretching his limbs and scratching his ear.

“What about your family, and your relationship within your group?” Takeda asked. His voice was gentle; the kind of voice that could lull someone to sleep.

“They’re my friends, and I don’t know where my parents, both doctors, are right now. I haven’t seen them ever since the outbreak.” This question struck him as weird, but he assumed they might want to get a picture of someone’s personality.

“Do you have combat skills? What have you done to survive so far?” The blonde’s eyes were fixed on him, making Maki a little uncomfortable.

Hanamaki shook his head, “Eh, we’ve moved around a lot. We didn’t really have any goal in mind yet, I think?” It wasn’t an easy question. He didn’t know if they had a plan. Did they have a plan? If they had, then he forgot about it.

“Any medical issues?”

Maki pursed his lips, “No,” he answered, and the old Ukai hummed.

Then he stood up and extended his hand for Maki to shake it. “That was all for now.” The man’s handshake was strong, something the younger man didn't expect.

Toru was pissed. He didn’t feel like answering questions, and he didn’t feel like being assessed by a man that could be his grandpa. He was asking for his name, his former occupation — which the old man’s son deemed useless because law students in times of an apocalypse weren’t what someone would look for. Oikawa had definitely taken offence. They asked him about his family, a few things about his past life, and how the zombie situation had affected him. It felt like he was being interrogated.

“So, pretty boy, do you have any combat skills?” Toru scoffed at the nickname that Keishin Ukai gave him.

“No.” The brunette answered, and the man muttered a ‘thought so’ under his breath. Oikawa didn’t like him.

“What about you, little man?” Takeda addressed Tobio, but naturally, the boy didn’t give an answer.

Oikawa squeezed the boy who was sitting on his lap, “His name’s Tobio. He doesn’t talk.” The dark-haired man was about to ask him more about Tobio-chan, though before he could utter another word, Toru said: “And before you ask me about his parents or anything in particular about where he’s from, the answer is ‘I don’t know’.”

“That’s okay, I guess.” Keishin shrugged his shoulders.

“Do you, or Tobio, have any medical issues, we should know about.” The Chief asked, scrapping his pen over the paper.

Oikawa’s immediate response was ‘no’. He wasn’t sure if lying was the right thing to do, but he didn’t want to disclose his knee injury to them. It was none of their business.

Matsun walked past a pissed-off Oikawa, and for a moment, he was confused. What could they have said to him to make him scowl like that?

He sat down on the chair, fidgeting and picking on the soft material. When he found the right position, he relaxed. It was quite a comfortable chair.

He tapped his fingers on the armrest of the furniture, waiting for Chief Ukai to look up from his notes. Issei felt like he was being interviewed for a job position, not that this kind of thing ever went well for him.

He wasn’t sure what to expect, though. Maki said the questions were simple, but Matsukawa didn’t want to tell people about his past-self. It was private; details he wanted to keep for himself and from anyone else. He hadn’t even told Maki much about himself, and he wasn’t going to tell people he didn’t know about the kind of life he once lived.

The first question was easy. He simply had to tell them his name and age, but he already started sweating buckets on the second question, and the ‘interview’ hadn’t really started yet.

“What did you do before the apocalypse?” The Chief was asking for an occupation.

Matsun’s brain went into overdrive. He was coming up with at least ten possible answers per second, but he couldn’t decide which one to take. The truth wasn’t an option. He couldn’t tell them he made money by doing illegal things. That was frowned upon and would give them a reason not to trust him, which in return would have a negative effect on his friends, making them untrustworthy by association.

The Chief cleared his throat, waiting for the raven-haired man to answer.

“I attended university.” Matsukawa stated. It was a solid lie. He was young, so the best thing to go for was to claim to have been a university student.

“What did you study?” Tanaka asked with curiosity.

‘Shoot,’ Matsun thought, but his posture and facial expression were as calm and collected as always, despite the inner panic attack. “Business and Management.” It was one of the most commonly studied subjects in university, and it wasn’t something they would ask him more questions about.

It wasn’t like he didn’t dream of going off to college, but the circumstances had never been to his favour. Escaping had remained a dream. Matsun didn’t consider the apocalypse to be an entirely bad thing. It was a chance to demand a new deck and a new shuffle.

The Chief leaned forward on his elbows and rested his chin on the back of his intertwined hands. His expression was unreadable as he considered the other’s answers. “I see,” the grey-haired man said.

Matsukawa counted the seconds to his dismissal, but time went by slowly. It was like something blocked the cogwheel, throwing time out of balance. His answers about his family remained vague, and he could feel the old man’s gaze cut through him.

Matsun had never considered himself to be a bad liar, but this old guy seemed to be some human polygraph. But it could also be Issei’s paranoia. When he was done, he felt awful, yet relieved that it was over. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to stay in the camp.

Iwaizumi was the last one, answering every question truthfully. He found it odd that they wanted to know so many personal things, but he had a hunch that maybe they had run into people that seemed nice but didn’t have the best intentions in the end. The old man seemed to have taken a liking to him, though.

“I hope you don’t take it personally that we ask so many questions.” The Chief said as he shook his hand.

“I don’t mind.” Iwaizumi’s answer was short.

Chief Ukai nodded, “we’ve had some trouble lately with another group that tried to ambush us by infiltrating the camp, so we need to remain cautious.” Then the older man frowned; a pondering look on his face. "They could have just asked us if they needed help. We would have tried to help them out." The old man muttered, mostly to himself.

“I get that. We also ran into some shady individuals.” Iwaizumi didn’t even want to remember the guys that tried to kill them. It was an unpleasant memory he wanted to get rid of.

“Well, we try to help as good as we can and behave civilised, despite the difficult circumstances.” The old man agreed, nodding his head in understanding. After a short pause, he said: “ I want to ask you something about your friend.”

“Which friend?” Iwaizumi blinked. Didn't they just questioned everyone of his friends?

“Matsukawa,” Chief Ukai stated; his eyes serious.

Iwaizumi frowned, “Matsun? Why?”

“No reason,” the older man answered with a smile.

Hajime pursed his lips. He wasn't sure how to interpret the obvious distrust, but he also didn't know what Matsun had done to raise suspicions. He sometimes rubbed people the wrong way with his sarcastic remarks and careless attitude.

“He’s got a shitty sense of humour, he’s overly sarcastic, doesn’t respond well to orders — like Oikawa — and doesn’t take anything seriously. But he’s a good guy, and he knows how to fight,” Iwaizumi answered. He tried to keep his tone neutral.

Chief Ukai nodded his head then, seemingly satisfied with the answer. “Ennoshita will show you around then.” He bid his farewell, and the younger man exited the room, sighing in relief.

“We’re in the main building right now. There’s the Chief office, and also the hospital, the dinning room and the school. We want to provide everything needed without constricting the quality of life we used to know,” Ennoshita explained as they followed him through the building.

Ennoshita walked them to the hospital ward. It was on the left wing of the building with several rooms equipped with the needs of those who fell sick. There was also an isolated area where they took those who showed symptoms of the zombie disease. It was closed off and nobody was allowed to enter without permission.

They kept strict records on who entered and left the hospital, closely monitoring how many drugs, supplies and how much medication was used on each person. Right now, only a few people were there, mostly being treated for minor injuries.

“Hey, Captain!” The dark-haired man yelled, greeting the person sitting on a stretcher, probably waiting for treatment. “I am showing around our newest members.”

“Don’t call me Captain,” the man with short brown hair and brown eyes said, pinching the bridge of his nose. He was well-built, his frame large, giving off a very reassuring aura. Hanamaki noticed him holding onto the stump of his left arm, and by the troubled look on his face, Maki assumed the man might experience some sort of phantom pain.

“This is Daichi. I’ll introduce him to you later. He’s like a mom and a dad combined in one person,” Ennoshita chuckled, then he turned his attention to Maki. “It’s always good to have somebody who can help around here. We’re short on staff and we only have one doctor.”

Next was the school, which was in the right wing. It was lively in there, with children of every age sitting together. Some were reading whilst others played with toys. The rooms’s decor was fitting for a school environment, but it still looked a little tackey with all the colours and toddler stuff, particularly for the older ones.

“We only have three classes: class a, b and c. Class a is for the youngest, age three to six. Class b is for those, who are somewhere in the middle, and class c is for the oldest, age 13 to 18. Everything is voluntary. We want to create a feeling of safety and bring routine in their daily life,” the brunette said with a solemn expression.

“That’s nice.” Toru said. The effort was there, but he in the long run, the children still ran short on the education the older generation had.

Then, they were led to the dinning hall. It was spacious, and everyone got their daily share of food. Ennoshita introduced them to Koushi Sugawara, who took over as their guide. He was a cheerful individual, well-mannered; a man with silver hair and a beauty mark below his eye. He did everything with a lot of engagement. Sugawara led them outside and introduced them to the people. There was no way they would remember all the names, and Oikawa didn’t even try.

Maki; however, remembered a few. There was this tall, lanky, half-Russian guy named Lev, and his equally tall sister Alisa. A girl named Yui was in charge of the plants, and Kanoka is helping build the cabins. Hanamaki remembers her because she was so awkward around an oblivious Tanaka. Then there was this tall blonde boy with a salty personality. Yamaguchi and Yachi knew him, calling him Tsuki. Apparently, they went to middle school together. The world sure was small.

As they were taking their belongings from the cars to the cabins they would now occupy, Matsun only half listened to Oikawa rant. “How could that baldy think Tobio-chan was their child. It’s preposterous.”

“Can’t blame him. They have the same hair colour, and he only has two expressions: neutral or glare,” Matsun reasoned, craning his head to look in the sky. There was no single cloud in sight, and it was getting dark.

“Tobio-chan doesn’t glare at people. It’s his concentration face,” Toru pointed out like it was the most obvious thing.

Matsun rolled his eyes, “Well, then it’s neutral and concentration.”

“Don’t listen to him, Tobio-chan. Uncle Matsun is full of shit,” Oikawa said to the boy who just nodded his head.

“What’s with the cussing, Toru” Maki clicked his tongue, shaking his head. “You’re not setting a good example for Tobio.”

“Told you he’s trash,” commented Iwaizumi nonchalantly. His mind was still occupied with the question the Chief had asked him. His eyes shifted to Matsun, who looked at him weirdly when he noticed the other man staring at him.

“Iwa-chan is rude,” Oikawa complained, but he didn't seem to mind. He just shrugged his shoulders.

“Should we take the trash out?” Maki chuckled, hitting the brunette on the back.

“What’s with my friends being rude to me all the time? Are we even friends?” Oikawa tried to snip Maki’s ear, but the other moved faster than he could while holding Tobio's hand.

“We should see the trash out, then.” Matsukawa corrected.

Kunimi scoffed. “Then you can see yourself out too.”

Oikawa put a hand on his hips and narrowed his eyes at his friends. “Finally, someone — beside Tobio-chan — who appreciates me.” The man turned around, suddenly walking the rest of the way with a slight skip in his steps. Tobio seemed to love the idea.

“Your bars of what you count as appreciation are pretty low,” Iwaizumi called after him, rolling his eyes at his best friend’s child-like behaviour.

“I’ve raised you!” Matsun gasped dramatically, turning away from the teenager to point an accusing finger at him.

“You’re annoying. You’re five years older than me at best,” Kunimi deadpanned.

Maki rubbed soothing circles into Matsun's back and said: “Don’t take it to heart. He’s in his rebellious phase.”

“You should follow Kindaichi’s example. He has manners.” Matsukawa swatted Kindaichi’s on the back, and Kunimi rolled his eyes.

  
The cabins were cosy, neat and spacious. It was about 3 metres by 3.5 metres with a single flat roof. There was a bed at the corner, and in the front of the big window was a small desk that could be put up and down. Next to the window at the corner was a small stove for the winter days, and above the bed was a bookshelf. Next to the door was a cupboard for shoes and other things, and another shelf screwed to the wall. There was also an additional space within the floor to hold items. It could easily be opened with the cord protruding from the floor.

The cabins varied in sizes, though most were kept small. There were about seven in total with two more in the making. Unfortunately, however, their cabins weren't all at the same place, so they had to pass by several other shelters to visit each other. The bigger houses were all occupied, mostly by families with children or the founders of the camp.

“You’ll be assigned a spot in the morning,” Sugawara said from behind them, bringing them two bottles of water each, a blanket and some food. “Maki, you’ll be at the hospital, that's for sure, and the rest of you will either help with the construction, the garden or be part of the outside troop. You’ll get into the routine pretty quickly.”

“I bet, I know what Kindaichi is gonna do,” Oikawa remarked.

“Nice one.” Maki high-fived him.

“Pff.”

“How long have you been here?” Iwaizumi asked the silver-haired man, changing the topic because of his friends. There was a smile tugging on his lips, though. The reference was as clear as the vegetable-shaped hairstyle of the boy in question.

Suga paused, thinking. “Pretty much from the very start. Maybe two or three weeks after they started building this place almost five months ago,” he answered with a big smile.

“You sure work fast,” commented Iwaizumi. Five months wasn't a long time, yet they managed to build this camp.

“Yep. We're a big group, so we've got a lot of helping hands. Besides, we didn’t start from scraps.” The smaller man chirped. “Some things were already there, like the stone wall, the houses and the garden area. This place used to be an institute for people recovering from substance abuse,” the man explained further, “we added the cabins because of the high number of people that joined us. We’re over 50 people. It takes about two weeks to build a cabin under the condition that we have all the materials there. So far, we went to the city to get what we needed, but it got too dangerous that’s why the building process is stalled for now.”

“Thanks for taking us in then,” Iwaizumi said, and Suga nodded.

The silver-haired man waved his hand, “No problem. I heard you saved Asahi and Noya, so we should be the ones thanking you guys, so thank you.”

“You're welcome,” Maki answered.

“It's getting late. You should get some sleep.” Suga went his way, probably delivering items to the rest of their group.

“Looks like we’re neighbours, so keep it down,” Matsun winked at Iwaizumi.

“Oh, shut up.” The other shook his head, disappearing inside the cabin.

“Tobio-chan is there too, you pervert.” Oikawa covered the boy's ears and clicked his tongue.

“But you’re happy, ain’t you? That he gave in to your whining.” Matsukawa looked at his friend with a knowing expression.

“I wasn't whining.” Toru argued. He couldn't deny the former, but he would deny the latter.

“You kinda were. You even came with the Tobio-Excuse. You were desperate.” Maki sing-sang with a mocking grin. He still thought it would be better for the two to finally come clean. It would be the best for every party involved.

“So what?” Oikawa pouted, turning his head away, “Tobio-chan wants Iwa-chan to be there too, and the blonde midget wanted to room with Kiyoko-chan. They even got a room in a normal house.” It wasn't an excuse per se, and he shouldn't feel as self-conscious of himself as he did right now when his two friends pointed out his obvious affection towards his best friend. Iwa-chan could have declined, but he didn't, so it was fine.

  
The next day, they were woken up by a loud knock on the door. “It's time to wake up. We still have to assign you your spots.”

Maki groaned, nudging Matsun by the shoulder. “Wake up, sunshine. We gotta work.”

The raven-haired man turned around; his back now facing his friend. “You go work, honey. I am gonna be the stay-at-home mom.” He snuggled his face into the pillow with a sigh.

Maki chuckled and rummaged through his bag, looking for the Polaroid camera. He charged it with the photo film and pressed the shutter button. Matsun squeezed his eyes together when the flash of the camera hit his face. He heard the typical sound the Polaroid made when it spit out the picture and felt the wind Maki created by waving the photo around on his back.

“Aww, how cute. Look.” Hanamaki leaned over the taller man shoved the picture into his face.

Issei opened his eyes. “I look stupid.”

“Well, that's your face. It can't be helped.” Shrugged Maki, putting the picture on top of the bookshelf.

Matsun snipped his finger against the smaller man’s head. “Ouch!” Maki grimaced, rubbing the spot.

Hanamaki tried to return the gesture, but reaching the taller man wasn’t that easy, especially when he took hold of his lower arms. Maki leant his weight on to Matsun, but the other wasn’t bothered at all and just pulled him into a hug.

“You could have told me that you wanted to cuddle,” Matsun hummed.

The smaller man struggled and tried to get out of the ravenette’s strong hold. To no avail. “Let go, moron.”

His face was pressed against the other’s chest, and he could smell his natural scent. Matsun smelled nice for some reason, and Maki’s face turned a flaming red; heart pounding against his ribcage in a relentless pace. Matsukawa just laughed, swaying around with Maki in his arms, burying his face into his neck.

Then he became quiet. Hanamaki; however, didn’t dare lift his head, for he didn’t want Matsun to see the pink hue on his cheeks. It could lead to misunderstandings. They were so close, and his mind couldn’t calm down.

“Can I ask you something?” Matsukawa’s voice was soft and small. It was a mere whisper.

“You j-just did.” Maki answered with a nervous laugh. He really wanted to take a deep breath. Inhaling the other’s scent; however, would just make things more awkward.

“Hah ah,” the raven-haired man chuckled, tightening his arm around him. “Do you actually want to stay here?”

Maki paused; his body relaxing into the other. “I guess. Do you not want to? What’s the matter?”

A thick layer of silence fell over them, and the smaller man was about to open his mouth again when Matsun finally spoke up. “It’s nothing. I was just curious, that’s all.” It sounded like an excuse.

“We don’t have to stay if you don’t want to,” Hanamaki stated. Something was bothering his friend, but Matsun hardly opened up.

“No, it’s fine. I am fine.” The taller man roller over, and Maki found himself on his back; head hitting the pillow. Matsun was hovering above him, his expression hidden by the strands of hair that fell into his face.

His heart was pumping, and he could his feel his blood pressure rise to unhealthy levels. He could hear the thumbing of the muscle residing behind his ribs, and his lips went dry. Every cell in his body was suddenly aware of the position they were in. Matsun’s hand was beside his head, his knee between his legs, and out of nowhere, the raven touched Maki’s bottom lip, pressing his thumb against the sensitive skin.

“You’re really pretty, you know.” Issei put his forehead against Maki’s, still not moving away.

The smaller grunted and turned his head away. “What are you saying? ‘m not pretty,” he muttered as the heat rose to his ears. He pushed against his chest. Dumfounded.

Then Matsun pulled away, and the radiating warmth of his body was suddenly gone.

“You are, tho.” Issei stated, stretching his tired muscles. He didn’t seem faced with what had just happened while Maki thought he was going to have a heart attack.

“Hey, bitches. What's taking you so long?” It was Oikawa’s voice, and he sounded annoyed and tired. Hanamaki had never been so grateful to hear his voice so early in the morning.

“C-Coming!” Shouted Maki as he hurried out of bed, trying to will the deep blush away from his cheeks.

Matsun looked after him and ran his hand over his face. _‘What are you doing?’_ he pondered. There was a slight tint of red across his cheeks, and he was glad Maki didn’t realise how fast his heart had been going. He wondered how the smaller man’s lips would feel against his, and if they were as soft as they look. Would he taste as sweet as the cute flush over his cheeks looked? Matsun had almost kissed him if it weren’t for his incredible self-restraint.

“What’s with you face?” Toru asked when Maki stumbled out of the cabin. He looked flustered.

“It’s the temperature. It was hot in there,” he answered, avoiding his friend’s eyes that turned into little slits of suspicion. It technically was hot in there.

Toru’s eyes widened. “Could it be that—”

“No! Whatever you are thinking, you are wrong.” Maki covered the brunette’s mouth, taking him into a choke-hold. Oikawa struggled, but Hanamaki didn’t let go of his mouth, even when he started pressing his wet tongue against his palm.

“That doesn’t bother me.”

“What are you two doing?” Iwaizumi asked, and at that moment, Matsun finally stepped out of the cabin. Maki blushed and let go of Oikawa.

“We should g-get going!” the strawberry-blonde man shouted.

Toru grimaced, “your hand tasted salty.”

Iwaizumi watched Maki speed-walk down the stone path and cocked his head to the side. “Did I miss something?” His eyes landed on Oikawa and then on Matsun. The latter only shrugged, walking past the other man without so much as a word.

“Where’s Tobio-chan?” The brunette asked, looking around to all sides.

“He’s sleeping. What else would he be doing?”

“Then I go get him. We can’t just leave. He’ll get scared if he wakes up and we’re gone.”

Iwaizumi sighed, “You’ll deal with him then. He’s grumpy in the morning.”

Oikawa scoffed at Matsun’s amused face. “What is it?”

The brunette had a spade in his hand, digging into the ground to replant the cuttings. Tobio was sitting right next to him, playing with the dirt. Oikawa had to stop him several times from eating it. He didn’t know why he was assigned this post, but he didn’t mind. No one was bothering him there, and Yui and Mao were easy going. The other five people that helped with the sustenance of the greenhouse and garden were okay, but he was keen on meddling with them.

“I just didn’t expect you to be gardening, that’s all.”

Oikawa put the shovel down. “Well, unbeknownst to everyone, I have a bit of a green thumb. I once looked after the cactus of my neighbour.” He said it with pride.

“Wow, such skills, I am impressed.”

“What are you doing here, anyway? Don’t you have a task?” The brunette resumed his work. “No, Tobio-chan. No eating tares either.” He took the weeds out of the boy’s hand, handing him a shovel instead.

“I do, but I am taking a break—”

Matsukawa choked when someone pulled at his collar, causing him to tumble back slightly.

Oikawa’s face lit up. “Iwa-chan!”

“What the fuck, Matsun. I’ve been looking for you. You were supposed to meet me at the main gate.” Iwaizumi looked pissed. It was Matsukawa’s first day, and he was already causing trouble, delaying the execution of their task. He could count himself lucky that Tanaka was so lenient.

“Seems like I got lost,” the raven-haired man grinned, but the other man just glared at him.

“God, why am I always stuck with you?”

“Because we make a good team, no?” Issei winked, but Iwaizumi's deep scowl remained on his face.

Iwaizumi didn’t say anything. He just dragged Matsun away while Toru was left gawking after his two friends.

Maki was sitting on the stretcher in the left wing of the main building, watching the clock at the other side of the room. There was not much to do, and he just escaped the only doctor’s tyranny. Suguru Daishou had been in his last semester studying medicine when the structure of the world turned upside down. He had a thin face, slanted eyes, and Maki didn’t even want to start with the brunette’s personality.

Daishou was a guy with a superiority complex. He was arrogant, ordering people around like they were his servants; mere peasants to his glory. He also got away with it because he was an important asset. Hanamaki hated his guts.

He sighed, his legs dangling from the stretcher. Maki wondered what Matsun was doing right now. A blush spread across his cheeks and he shook his face, slapping it with his hands to will away the colour that was tinting his face red. It was for the best not to think too much into it.

“You’re barely here one day, and you’re already slacking off.”

“I wasn’t.”

“Then make yourself useful.”

Maki had to suppress the urge to roll his eyes.

“Cut it out, Daishou.” The man from the other day said. His voice was neutral, but there was something boiling beneath the light tone. This time, his arm — or the lack thereof — was covered by a long cardigan.

Hanamaki sighed in relief. Someone sent him an angel.

Daishou narrowed his eyes, “You should be grateful I saved your life. Otherwise, you’d be nothing but a walking corpse.”

“Wow, these sure are work ethics worth abiding by.” Maki’s voice was dripping with sarcasm, and the brunette’s face soured. Hanamaki hated people like that. He was sure that Daishou would have gone off on him if it weren’t for the presence of Daichi’s imposing figure. How the man managed to do that, despite the lost arm, was astounding.

“You’ll get used to it.” Daichi’s voice was soft, entirely different when speaking to Daishou earlier.

Maki hopped from the stretcher, “What happened to your arm?”

“It’s a long story.” The brunette rubbed the back of his neck, his gaze shifting to the window.

“I love long, indulging stories. They are my favourits.”

Daichi shifted on his feet. Then he sighed and leant against the counter of the cupboards. “I happened a few months ago. We heard someone cry for help several days in a row, and I couldn’t just ignore it. I told my friends I’d be right back and went looking for whoever needed help.” He started, and Maki listened closely. The man’s face turned solemn as he clutched his arm. Then his eyes wandered to the ceiling as his mind went back to that one fateful day. He didn’t even know why he started telling the other in the first place. He didn’t like to talk about it, but the carefreeness in the light-haired man’s voice, and the soft smile, infiltrated the wall, Daichi had built around him.

_On their way back to the camp, Daichi, Asahi, Nishinoya and Sugawara used their usual route to avoid running into the hoard of zombies they barely managed to escape from. They had looked for survivors, but they had yet to encounter someone that wasn’t dead._

_It had been a few months since it all started, and everyone still hoped it was going to end soon. Their camp was functioning and capable of sustaining themselves, but they still needed more resources._

_The air was fresh, and the wind howled as the darkness of the night surrounded them. Daichi loved how the sky looked without the lights in the cities overpowering the natural beauty of the sky, bathed in stars._

_For the past few days, Daichi had been hearing voices calling for help, but every time he and his friends went looking for the source, they found nothing. At some point, the brunette was convinced he was imagining things, but he still could shake that nagging feeling off. It was sitting deep inside his chest, unwilling to stop yelling at him._

_“The path’s blocked,” Suga informed them, pointing at the stream where at least a dozen zombies were stalking the area. Their noises gave them away, but even through the dark, you could see their bodies move._

_Noya elbowed the silver-haired man to get his attention and whispered: “They’re not that many. We could try to take them out.”_

_Suga shook his head, and Daichi answered for him. “It’s best to avoid them if possible. It’s dark, so let’s change our route and head east for now.”_

_“Right.” Koushi nodded, and Asahi was all too eager to avoid any kind of encounter with a walking corpse._

_They sneaked through thicket; their steps cautious and thoughtful. They were practically blind and didn’t know what laid ahead of them. One wrong move could reveal them and catch the zombies’ attention instantly. Dealing with multiple zombies at once was difficult, and even more so when in low-light conditions. Daichi always preferred to not fight zombies at night when he couldn’t rely on all his six senses._

_The group headed east with Sugawara watching the needle of the compass with concentration. They had trekked through the woods for about 15 minutes when Daiki’s and the others’ heads shot up. Everyone stopped moving, looking around with their hands on their weapon holsters._

_“Did you hear that?” Daichi asked in a low voice. He tried to filter out the sounds of the cicadas, concentrating on the surrounding noises._

_“I don’t know. I think so.” Noya whispered._

_Asahi covered his face with his hands, peering through the cracks of his fingers. “Maybe it’s a ghost.”_

_The screams resounded again, and Daichi was sure. There was someone in dire need of help. “I’ll go check it out. You three go ahead without me.”_

_“Wait, no. You can’t go alone. It’s too dangerous—” Suga said, but Daichi covered his mouth with his hand. Mostly to stop him from being too loud._

_“I’ll be fine,” the brunette assured, but Koushi looked unconvinced, holding on to his arm, unwilling to let him go anywhere._

_“Are you sure?” Noya asked._

_“That’s not a good idea,” Asahi added, siding with Suga._

_“I am sure. I’ll be right back.”_

_“No—”_

_“I’ll be right back.”_

_His friends let him go; Only reluctant, though._

_Daichi ran into the direction he thought the screams were coming from, not knowing whether his hunch was right. The twigs and leaves of the trees and bushes hit his face, but he ignored the uncomfortable ache. He could barely see, but the voice became louder the closer he got. The brunette huffed in relief and stepped out of the woods, falling down to the ground from the speed._

_He remained on the grass and looked around, scanning the area. There was a camp with people cladded in white robes. From the distant, Daichi couldn’t see much, so he sneaked closer, infiltrating the camp. There was a sign above the entrance, but he couldn’t read it because of the dark, and the light from within the camp wasn’t enough to make the inscription legible. The screams had ceased, but he was sure they came from within whatever this was._

_The inhabitants didn’t spot the brunette as he moved around, using the dark as a cover. He saw nothing suspicious beside the people themselves. They gathered lanterns and other things with a creepy smile of undefiable joy on their faces. It was spooky, and Asahi’s ghost theory made so much more sense now. There was another thing that caught his attention. A lone barn on a field. It was far away from the ‘festivities’ of the camp, and Daichi was sure the cries came from there._

_He ducked further down as a person in a white robe, carrying a lantern, closed in on his hiding spot, and he hold his breath. When the person moved past him, Daichi watched and tried to assess the situation. He waited, deciding to investigate once he saw an opening._

_Daichi peered into the small window of the barn; eyes falling on two small figures whose silhouettes became visible in the moonlight. He choked on his on breath; shock rippling through his body. They were young, imprisoned by someone, and treated like kettles from a factory farm. Who on earth could do this to another human being? Daichi stepped down from the wooden block and rounded the barn._

_The brunette inspected the lock on the door, and it wasn’t hard to pick. If he used enough force, it would break. He tore on the door, pushing against it. He threw his body against the mouldy door until it the lock broke._

_Daichi stepped in and saw a boy and a girl, both with ginger hair, crawling in on themselves. Their faces were hidden by the dark, but Daichi’s eyes had adjusted enough to identify the fear in their expressions. He switched on his flashlight, noticing how thin the two children were, clothes hanging from their boney shoulders. His eyes landed on the handcuffs, and the brunette couldn’t fathom how someone could just cuff children to a metal pole like it was the most normal thing to do. It made him sick to his stomach, and anger filled the last capacity of his lungs with every breath he took. The barn smelled of urine, among other things, almost making him gag._

_The boy flinched when Daichi stepped closer and put his hand over the boy’s mouth to prevent him from screaming. He switched off the flashlight. He couldn’t risk to be found out._

_“Shhhh,” Daichi hushed; his voice calm and soothing. “Don’t be scared. I heard you, and I am here to help you.” The ginger nodded his head; the movements almost violent as his face contorted from the gratitude he likely experienced deep inside._

_“Who are you?” The teen’s voice cracked; it was hoarse from dehydration. He squinted his eyes._

_“That’s not important right now.” Daichi said, and the boy seemed to relax, despite not getting a clear answer._

_Daichi led the two children over the field and into the heart of the camp. They sneaked around, trying to get to the exit without being caught._

_The brunette looked behind him, noticing that the ginger-haired boy wasn’t behind him anymore._

_He crouched down to the girl and patted her head, guiding her to a small niche next to the gate of the camp. “Wait here. I’ll be right back.”_

_She clung to his clothes; her big eyes pleading. “No, please don’t leave me.”_

_Dachi stroke her cheek, and in a gentle and hushed tone, he said: “It’s fine. I promise. Just stay here. Don’t move.”_

_The girl nodded and let go of his clothes. Daichi then went back from where he came from, spotting the boy just standing there._

_From the distance, he could hear a woman screaming: “Why? Why are you doing this? Please, stop. Please.”_

_Her words rang in Daichi’s ears, and the fear and desperation made his stomach drop as the bile rose to his throat. What were these people doing?_

_In a booming voice filled with confidence and laced with mania, someone said: “The ritual shall now begin.”_

_Daichi didn’t know what to expect, but from the crazy rambling of the man who spoke in a tongue the brunette wasn’t familiar with but recognised as old Latin, it couldn’t be good._

_His eyes widened when he saw the blood splattered over the white robe of a man holding a knife while the blood was pooling around a motionless body tied to an altar. The thick, red liquid ran down the naked skin of the dead man, just to drop and dribble down the stone to create a mosaic of horror on the ground._

_Daichi couldn’t speak. The deed too atrocious to put it into words. The ginger-haired boy stood there motionless; his cheeks wet from the tears._

_The dead man turned into a zombie shortly after the leader freed him from his confinement while laughing with maniac glee as the zombie attacked the people who kneeled in front of the fire. The dark-haired man’s eyes showed a glint of pure satisfaction, almost mesmerised by the slaying._

_He didn’t stop cackling, even after he was informed that the children were gone. Daichi realised that he had just saved the two._

_“It’s done. God’s wrath will be appeased. We will be saved once we join the war.” He laughed, throwing his head back. He stepped down the high ground, walking into the newborn zombie hoard. Fresh blood tainted the white robes, and desperate and fearful cries of dying people filled the air._

_Daichi couldn’t let the boy watch it any longer. He placed his warm hand over the ginger’s eyes and dragged him away from the slaughtering, regretting not having done so before the blood-shed started._

_“I told you not to run off.” He reprimanded him. His voice remained gentle, but he couldn’t stop the sorrow in his heart from seeping into his words._

_Daichi led the boy to his sister and was about to get going when a deafening scream almost shattered his eardrums._

_“HELP!! PLEASE HELP!” Daichi couldn’t ignore it._

_“Listen, boy. I’ll give you a description to my camp, so listen closely.” he told the ginger, giving him a quick description before he hurried into the direction of the scream._

_“If you arrive, tell them that Daichi send you!” He called, disappearing into the dark to save whoever needed saving._

_The girl was cowering on the ground; her hands still tied around her back. She screamed, trying to crawl away and hide in a narrow opening._

_Most of the desperate and fearful cries, screams and sobs had died down as bodies piled on the ground while the zombies fed on them. You could hear the cracking of bones and the slurping sounds of flesh being torn from the skin. Blood covered the ground, and the flickering flame of the campfire dipped the eerie scenario into a romantic light of terror and agony._

_“NO! NO! I don’t want to!” The girl sobbed when five zombies closed in on her, and one grabbed her foot, pulling her out of her hiding spot. She was as skinny as the red-haired children and about his age. Her hair was cropped short, and she had big brown eyes that were filled with tears and horror._

_Daichi moved without thinking and took his knife from his pocket, smoothly moving through the eating zombies._

_His first kill was quick. One aimed stab from the eyeball through the brain. He went after the second one while trying to avoid the rest. Their dead, dull eyes were now focused solely on him as they charged at him. Their movements were fast, but he managed to take the next two out._

_It was draining; however, and the prior occupied zombies were now more interested in the moving target. His knife got stuck in one of the dead’s skull, so he looked for another weapon._

_His eyes fell on the still flickering campfire, and he grabbed a piece of wood, holding the zombies at bay with the fire._

_“Please, help me!” the girl shouted as she struggled to get away from the predatory fang’s of the predator that had its eyes set on her once again._

_Daichi watched the monster charge the brunette, and his brain didn’t register the pain at first as the adrenaline shot through his veins. He found himself in front of the woman; his body standing protectively over her while his arm was stretched out to hold back the zombie. It had its teeth deeply sunken into his left forearm, and with every movement Daichi made, it tore further into his skin._

_His mind went blank; a pulsating pain surging through his arm. Dachi screamed, tears bricking his eyes. He bit his lip._

_A crippling fear coiled in the bits of his stomach, and the brunette pulled his arm away. A piece of his arm got ripped out in the process, and he had to stifle his racing thoughts. Everything was spinning around him, and he spotted the zombies coming at him again._

_He grabbed the girls arm and started running, ignoring the dull, throbbing pain of the wound. There was only one thing he could do right now, so after they had run a decent distance, he stopped and pulled another knife and a rope from his belt._

_“What are you doing?” The girl asked with fear in her voice, but Daichi didn’t answer her._

_Instead, he tied his arm against a tree to secure his limb. Then turned his body, in order to twist his own arm to the point of breaking. He didn’t really think about it because he was in so much pain, he wouldn’t feel any additional pain._

_He could feel how his heart pumped the blood through his body; he could hear the deafening pounding in his ears. He had tears in his eyes, but those tears weren’t from the pain. He was scared; scared to die and scared to become one of them._

_His heart felt heavy, and his chest hollow when he realised that this might as well be the end. Accepting it so easily was a different story, however, so he chose the next best option: Denial._

_Then he heard the crack, but he didn’t feel the excruciating pain. As his arm hung loosely against his side, Daichi took the knife and cut through the muscle until the limb that was once attached to his body fell to the ground. He instantly hoped it would work and prevent the worst._

_Somehow Daichi managed to get back to the camp, only to lose consciousness from the loss of blood right in front of the main gate. He felt like he was the tragic hero in a Greek tragedy, bound to come to ruin and die a painful death because he was a selfless idiot, willing to sacrifice himself to save someone else._

“What’s with the boy and the girl? What happened to them?” Maki asked after listening to Daichi. He was shocked.

The brunette sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I don’t know. They never made it to the camp.”

“I am sorry.”

“That’s how it is,” Daichi smiled, and his chest felt lighter after talking about it. People were right. It was easier to talk to strangers than it was talking to your friends.

“You are kind of virtuous,” Maki commented.

The brunette raised an eyebrow and chuckled. “Is that a bad thing?”

“Some would say ‘yes’.” Hanamaki wasn’t sure how’d he, himself would deal with losing an arm. He was quite attached to his limbs.

“I don’t regret it. It’s just an arm, after all.” Daichi said, holding onto the stump. Maki observed the man in front of him, finding no bitterness in his expression.

The light-haired male hummed. “And the girl?”

“You mean Yui? She’s fine, but she still feels guilty about my arm.”

“I think most people would—”

“Maki, stop chit-chatting and check the inventory.” When Maki heard Daishou call his name, he scowled. His voice was as demanding and rude as it had been the entire day.

“The tyrant is calling,” he sighed and walked to the door, turning around to the other male. “It was nice talking to you.”

A few days turned into weeks, and life in the camp was incredibly peaceful. Matsun stomped through the undergrowth of the woods, trailing behind Iwaizumi, Tanaka, Asahi and Nishinoya. The canopy of the high trees was thick, and only a few rays of sunshine made its way through it. The chirping of the grills and birds, the soft splashing of the small stream dipped the forest into a splendour of tranquillity.

Matsun could smell the earthy scent of nature, and the slight breeze in his hair felt nice. He closed his eyes for a moment before focusing on the task at hand again. They had to check on the water pipe that supplied the camp with fresh water.

He fell behind the rest; watchful eyes scanning the area. Iwaizumi noticed it, waiting for him to catch up.

“What’s the matter?”

Issei met the smaller man’s eyes, shifting his gaze to the surrounding trees again. “The tranquillity freaks me out a bit.”

Iwaizumi hummed, adjusting his pace to his friends. After a while of wordlessly walking side by side, the former soldier broke the silence.

“What did you tell Chief Ukai? On the day we arrived, he asked me if you can be trusted.”

Matsukawa glanced sideways to Iwaizumi. He wasn’t surprised that the old man didn’t trust him. He had already expected it.

Iwaizumi had his eyes fixed straight ahead, waiting for an answer.

“Nothing out of the ordinary,” Matsun stated. “What did you tell him? Can I be trusted?” His tone was mocking.

“Of course,” Iwaizumi clicked his tongue. “I told him you’re an asshole.”

“That’s how you chose to advertise my trustworthiness. I am kinda disappointed, but not surprised," Issei shrugged his shoulders, stepping over the rocks with careful steps.

“You weren’t being honest, right?”

Matsun paused for a moment before he answered. “Everyone’s entitled to his own secrets. You of all people should know. Adultery was once considered an offence, punishable by law.” He didn't want to be an asshole. It came out wrong, almost accusing.

Iwaizumi sighed and ran his hand down his face. His shoulders slummed, and he stopped in his tracks. “Let’s not talk about that. I don’t wanna talk about it. It’s complicated.” Having someone tell him directly to the face that he was an asshole hurt, but the truth was ought to be like that. Hard and unforgiving, just like this world.

Matsun didn’t look at his companion and instead focused on the path in front of him. “Then let’s also not talk about my dishonesty. I don’t want to tell random people personal stuff, that’s all.”

They fell back into their initial pace, and the atmosphere hung heavily around them.

“Are you in love with Toru?” Matsukawa suddenly asked; he had to, even though the answer to the question was obvious.

The smaller man grunted. He didn’t expect the question. Was he in love with Oikawa? Was he ready to admit that he might as well be? He like being around him. He liked the kissing him and liked the smell of his skin. He liked his annoying voice, and even his undesirable personality. Iwaizumi cared about him, and when Toru called his name or brushed his lips against his, there was this intense feeling of happiness bubbling in his stomach. This feeling had started when they entered High School.

“You are, aren’t you. Probably because he’s pretty. His personality is shit.” It was more of a statement than a question. “There’s nothing wrong with being gay—”

“I am not gay.” It came out rather aggressive. More aggressive than Hajime intended it to be. He didn’t want to be different. He wanted to be like the majority.

“Well, whatever you are, you’re definitely not straight,” muttered Matsun. Someone was clearly in denial.

Iwaizumi scratched his forehead and pursed his lips. “I am sorry. It’s just complicated.”

“It’s okay. But don’t you think you’re making it more complicated than it is? This way, you’re hurting both of them and yourself.”

The former soldier averted his eyes. “I don’t want her to hate me. And I do love her.” His voice was soft, but sad.

“You’re confusing platonic feelings with romantic feelings. I mean, you clearly love me, and you’re not in love with me. The platonic and romantic ‘I love you’ just share the same term, but they have a totally different meaning.”

“Who says I love you? You’re annoying.” The smaller male grunted.

“Come on, don’t be shy. Want me to say it first?” Matsun asked, elbowing his friend.

“Fuck off.” Iwaizumi smiled, but then his face fell again. He sighed heavily through his nose. “I thought these feelings would go away once I enlist and don’t see him as often anymore. Besides, my parents wanted me to get married and kept pestering me about it. I just wanted them to stop, and Kiyoko is smart and easy to talk to.”

“Still doesn’t change the fact that your heart and dick want to be with an alien-obsessed space freak.”

Hajime chuckled. It was a small laugh that was partly filled with bitterness. “How am I even supposed to tell her?”

Matsun didn’t have time to answer because his eyes spotted something near a sandy opening. Iwaizumi followed him. He was confused.

Both men got closer to whatever was lying in the sand near the water. Iwaizumi said something, but Matsun couldn’t hear him because the noise of the waterfall was too loud. They saw Asahi and Noya coming their way, and suddenly Issei saw that it was a person.

He called out to the other two while Iwaizumi hurried to the man’s side, checking his pulse. He skin was really cold, but he could feel a faint thrumbing against his fingers.

“He’s still alive,” the raven-haired man said, and Matsun wondered what happened to the guy. His clothes were torn and dirty. He had messy black hair that was plastered on to his forehead because of the water. From what he could see from his face, he was pretty and about their age.

“Fast! Let’s carry him to the camp.” Nishinoya shouted, and Iwaizumi hoisted the man up as if he weighed nothing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave comments and kudos.  
> Feel free to critique on this chapter. It's got pretty long, and I hope it's not too lengthy or dialogue-heavy. 💕
> 
> See you next chapter! 🥰😄


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